| Scientists Develop New Drug To Outflank Cancer Resistance, UK
A new drug has shown promising results against breast and prostate cancer cells and tumours that are resistant to conventional hormone-based treatments, according to research published in the British Journal of Cancer.
Cancers such as breast and prostate cancer are often fuelled by sex hormones, such as oestrogen or testosterone. Hormone therapy for breast or prostate cancer aims to reduce the levels of these hormones in the body, "starving" the cancer of these signals and halting tumour growth. Some cancers are resistant to this treatment from the outset while many build up a resistance to these drugs over time, their growth becoming hormone-independent - such cancers are a major challenge to treat.
Now, researchers have shown that a new drug - STX140 - directly targets hormone-independent cancer cells by initiating a natural suicide process within them.
Public Health & Education | Low-Fat Diets Reduce Risk of Ovarian ...
An abstract of the study is available online. Most Women Unaware of WHI Results, Survey Says
Most women are unaware of the results from WHI studies that have found significant health risks associated with long-term hormone replacement therapy, according to a recently released survey, HealthDay/Washington Post reports (Doheny, HealthDay/Washington Post, 10/10).
NIH researchers in July 2002 ended the WHI study on combination HRT three years early because they determined that the treatment might increase the risk for heart disease, invasive breast cancer and other health problems. A later WHI analysis, published in the April 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that HRT use among women in their 50s does not increase their risk for heart attack (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 9/17).
New cancer drug could aid thousands
Thousands of patients suffering breast and prostate cancer could benefit from a new drug, experts have said. Cancers such as breast and prostate are often fuelled by sex hormones, including oestrogen or testosterone. Many patients can benefit from hormone therapies aimed at cutting levels of these hormones, thereby "starving" the cancer and halting tumour growth. But some people have cancers that are resistant to such treatments while others build up a resistance to the hormone drugs. Such "hormone-independent" cancer cells are a major challenge to treat and current therapies are limited. Now a study by researchers at Imperial College London, published in the British Journal of Cancer, has revealed promising results for a new drug, STX140.
Screws tighten on CIA for interrogation techniques
For six years, CIA officers have worried that someday the tide of post-Sept. 11 opinion would turn, and their harsh treatment of al Qaeda prisoners would be subjected to hostile scrutiny and possible criminal prosecution. Now that day may have arrived, after years of shifting legal advice, searing criticism from human rights groups - and no new terrorist attacks on American soil. The Justice Department, which in 2002 gave the CIA legal approval for waterboarding and other tough interrogation methods, is reviewing whether agency officials broke the law by destroying videotapes of those very methods. The congressional intelligence committees, whose leaders in 2002 gave at least tacit approval for the tough tactics, have voted in conference to ban all coercive techniques, and they have announced investigations of both the destruction of the videotapes and the methods they documented.
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