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October 15, 2018Prostate cancer patients to benefit from targeted radiation deliveryThe new therapy has produced dramatic responses in some men with aggressive prostate cancer and who have failed current therapies.
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June 8, 2018Prostate tumours supported by a city of 'cells'Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in Australian men, causing the deaths of more than 3,000 men a year. This new understanding may help increase the accuracy of prostate cancer diagnosis in the future. The study, led by Professor Susan Clark and Dr Ruth Pidsley from the Garvan Institute and Professor Gail Risbridger and Dr Mitchell Lawrence from the Monash BDI, investigated how cells that are adjacent to tumours differ from those that are more remote. The team found key changes in the DNA, which may explain how adjacent cells change their behaviour to help tumours grow. “Most prostate cancer research to date has focused on the cancer cells themselves, the new study set out to explore the ‘city’ of the tumour microenvironment,” said Dr Pidsley. “What hasn’t been clear until our study was how these changes arise and how they’ve been encoded in the cells,” Dr Lawrence said. “We’ve uncovered for the first time on a genome-wide level precisely the changes that occur in the surrounding cells. This gives us a much deeper understanding about prostate cancer,” he said. The findings were recently published in the journal Genome Research. “Just like people in big cities who rely on a complex network of infrastructure for their daily lives, cancer cells depend on the surrounding tumour microenvironment,” Dr Pidsley said. “The result of our work is a new molecular map of the cellular infrastructure that the cancer cells rely on,” she said. The ‘map’ of the tumour surroundings was created by measuring chemical marks on the DNA of the tumour-adjacent cells. These marks determine which genes are turned on and off in the cells, and therefore how they function.” The researchers hope to use the ‘map’ to understand more clearly how the cancer cells grow and spread and to improve identification of prostate cancer in biopsies to improve patient care. “We think it has important potential application in increasing the accuracy of prostate cancer diagnosis,” Professor Risbridger said. Professor Clark said that the collaboration combining the skills of scientists, clinicians assisting with patient samples, and computer scientists had been vital to conducting the study. The team has started further studies extending this one using a larger sample size of patients. Read the full paper in Genome Research titled Enduring epigenetic landmarks define the cancer Microenvironment. This article was originally published on the Garvan Institute of Medical Research's website. ACRF has supported Garvan by providing three grants, totalling AUD 6.1 million towards cutting-edge cancer research equipment and technology.
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July 27, 2017Surgery for early stage prostate cancer doesn't save livesFrom the 1980s, when prostate screening became available, many men over 40 were diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer even though they may not have had any symptoms.
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April 18, 2017Prostate cancer genome map uncovers new DNA rearrangementsResearchers have mapped the entire genome of a prostate tumour, revealing previously undetected levels of DNA rearrangements.
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February 20, 2017Gold standard for cancer research technique revealed by global studyA research technique that is widely used to test new anti-cancer agents could be improved by adoption of a worldwide ‘gold standard’.
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January 26, 2017Why are we more likely to get cancer as we age?A closer look at the cancer figures in relation to age at diagnosis shows a clear and dramatic increase in cancer as we age.
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January 19, 2017Cancer immunity enhanced by extending lifespan of natural killer cellsA team of researchers have uncovered new insights into how to prolong the lifespan of the body’s disease-fighting natural killer (NK) cells.
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January 17, 2017Interactive body map: physical inactivity and the risks to your healthPhysical inactivity has consistently been shown to be one of the most powerful, modifiable risk factors for all causes of death and disease, alongside smoking and obesity.
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January 16, 2017Aggressive prostate cancer linked to faulty BRCA2 geneNew research has revealed why men with a family history of prostate cancer, and who also carry the BRCA2 gene fault, have a more aggressive form of prostate cancer.
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December 26, 2016New findings: anxiety is linked to death from cancer in menOne reason may be that men tend to wait a long time before making a visit to the clinic when they feel unwell compared to women.
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December 21, 2016Mindfulness in cancer treatment: time to stop and thinkFor nine months we followed 189 men with advanced prostate cancer to assess whether mindfulness-based cognitive therapy led to any improvements over time.
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December 14, 2016Fasting may improve cancer treatment, but needs further explorationThe gold standard treatment for cancer in the last few decades has been a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy – to kill cancer cells.
This news feed provides news and background articles on prostate cancer and cancer research. We report on findings related to prostate cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment, spanning from basic research to translational cancer research and major breakthroughs. Our feature stories are about cancer risks, new drugs and treatments, and the latest advances in cancer treatment such as personalised medicine and immunotherapy. Our growing collection of articles is not designed to provide medical or professional advice and is for support and information only. If you have any health problems or questions please consult your doctor.