Pinpointing new targets for cancer treatments is as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack, yet a University of Rochester team has discovered an entire novel class of genes they believe will lead to a greater understanding of cancer cell function and the next generation of effective and less harmful therapies for patients.

Australian researchers have identified five genes which they hope will improve treatment for people with brain tumours.

Having someone to drive you to cancer treatments or make sure you are eating may be even more important than tumor size or other medical factors in predicting cancer survival.

A Brisbane medical specialist says science has not explained why teenagers and young adults do not respond as well as expected to cancer treatments.

Cancer patients don’t have time to waste. Many go through several different treatments, however, to find one that is more effective against their particular type of tumor.

Based on their surprising discovery that an obesity drug can kill cancer cells, scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have made a new finding about the drug’s effects and are working to design more potent cancer treatments.

According to a new GfK Roper Public Affairs survey sponsored by CancerCare, a national nonprofit cancer support organization, while the majority (76 percent) of women surveyed said they know at least a fair amount about breast cancer, many remain unaware of the important recent progress made in treatment.

These tiny tubes are constructed from carbon atoms and they are so small that it takes about 100,000 laid side-by-side to span the width of a single human hair. In the last five years, scientists have discovered that some individual nanotubes are fluorescent. That is, they glow when they are bathed in light. Some glow brightly. Others glow dimly. Some glow in spots. Others glow all over.

If you feel that you are fated for cancer, your belief could turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. According to a national survey of more than 6,000 U.S. adults published in the May issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a substantial number of American adults hold fatalistic beliefs about cancer and are correspondingly less likely to take basic steps to lower their cancer risk, such as exercising, quitting smoking and eating a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

Experts in cancer treatment from the United States, Europe and Australia are meeting colleagues from Asia to discuss how to prevent a huge increase in cancer cases in the region. They are gathering in Singapore for a conference organised by the British medical journal, The Lancet.

Two genes associated with aggressive breast cancer are linked to a key property of mammary stem cell function, according to researchers at the University of Michigan. The genes, PTEN and HER2, both are involved in the biochemical pathways that mediate stem cell self-renewal, a defining property of stem cells.

Scientists from Wake Forest University School of Medicine are the first to report that the stress hormone epinephrine causes changes in prostate and breast cancer cells that may make them resistant to cell death.