Inappropriate activation of a single enzyme, telomerase, is associated with the uncontrollable proliferation of cells seen in as many as 90 percent of all of human cancers. Since the mid-1990s, when telomerase was first identified in human tumors, scientists have eyed the enzyme as an ideal target for developing broadly effective anti-cancer drugs.

A common molecular pathway could help physicians predict which lung cancer patients will benefit from chemotherapy drugs, according to new research from a multidisciplinary team at the University of Cincinnati (UC).

Australian researchers say people with very poor resistance to infections are much more likely to contract 20 different types of cancers.

One of the fundamental traits of a tumor – how it avoids the immune system – might become its greatest vulnerability, according to researchers from the University of Southern California.

Genomic instability-the rearrangement of chromosomes or an abnormal number of chromosomes-is a hallmark of many human cancers. Although the source of genomic instability has been established for many inherited human cancers, the processes and genes involved in cancers that that are not inherited but arise sporadically remain largely unknown.

A team led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists has developed a more human-like mouse model of cancer they say will aid the search for cancer-causing genes and improve the predictive value of laboratory drug testing.