In new animal research done by investigators at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, scientists have discovered a treatment effective in mice at blocking the growth and shrinking the size of lung cancer tumors, one of the leading causes of cancer death in the world.

A recent discovery by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine could clear the way for a new drug that inhibits tumor growth in cancer patients and could potentially help in the healing of wounds.

Researchers at Uppsala University have developed a new tool that makes it possible to study the signals in the body that control the generation of blood vessels.

In trying to find out why HER2-positive breast cancer can be more aggressive than other forms of the disease, UC Davis Cancer Center researchers have surprisingly discovered that HER2 itself is the culprit. By shutting down its own regulator gene, HER2 creates a permissive environment for tumor growth.

An international team of researchers has discovered what promises to be the on-off switch behind several major diseases.

High-dose injections of vitamin C, also known as ascorbate or ascorbic acid, reduced tumor weight and growth rate by about 50 percent in mouse models of brain, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers, researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) report in the August 5, 2008, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A blue curing light used to harden dental fillings also may stunt tumor growth, Medical College of Georgia researchers say.

Immune cells called macrophages can destroy tumor cells by producing inflammatory proteins that are toxic to the tumor. But the environment inside the tumor somehow halts this production and instead causes the cells to make proteins that promote tumor growth.

The formation of new blood vessels, or angiogenesis, is an Achilles’ heel of tumor growth, because tumors depend on the supply of oxygen and nutrients for survival. Therefore, for some years now substances called angiogenesis inhibitors have been used in cancer treatment to suppress this process.

By increasing production of a blood pressure-regulating enzyme in mice, researchers have found they can enhance the mouse immune system's ability to sense tumor growth.

Targeting and killing the non-malignant cells that surround and support a cancer can stop tumor growth in mice, reports a research team based at the University of Chicago Medical Center in the March 1, 2008, issue of the journal Cancer Research. The discovery offers a new approach to treating cancers that are resistant to standard therapy.

Tumor growth has commonly been viewed as a result of mutations in a given cell that will therefore proliferate uncontrollably. However, a study conducted at the University of Helsinki, Finland, has demonstrated that in certain type of gastrointestinal polyps, the cause of tumor development are mutations in the smooth muscle cells, previously regarded as “innocent bystanders”.