Latest Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Stories

2-drug combination may alleviate radiation sickness in people A combination of two drugs may alleviate radiation sickness in people who have been exposed to high levels of radiation, even when the therapy is given a day after the exposure occurred, according to a study led by scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital Boston. Mouse studies of other potential therapies suggest they would be effective in humans only if administered within a few minutes or hours...

Boston-based Internet stationery company, LookLoveSend, LLC is partnering with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund this holiday season to offer online access to high-quality printed, personalized holiday photo cards. The collection includes special Dana-Farber Cancer Institute photo cards, the proceeds from which will go directly to the Jimmy Fund. Shoppers may also choose to make a gift directly to the Jimmy Fund at checkout with any other holiday card purchases. Billerica, MA...

2011 Grant Recipients and Scientific Merit Award Winner Announced NEW YORK, Nov. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Lung Cancer Research Foundation is announcing the 20 recipients of its 2011 research grants at its third annual Lung Cancer Symposium, tonight from 6-8 p.m. at the Times Center in New York, in commemoration of November as Lung Cancer Awareness Month. The free, open to the public session will feature distinguished thought leaders on a diverse set of topics linked to...

BETHESDA, Md., Nov. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) Biomarkers Consortium announced today the launch of a two-year clinical study aiming to advance the acceptance of new biomarkers designed to detect drug-induced kidney injury in clinical trials. The study is being conducted in collaboration with the Predictive Safety Testing Consortium (PSTC), a public-private partnership founded by the Arizona-based non-profit Critical Path Institute...

Finding rewrites old theory of why chemo works Challenging a half-century-old theory about why chemotherapy agents target cancer, scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have devised a test that can predict how effective the drugs will be by determining whether a patient's tumor cells are already "primed" for death. In a study published online by the journal Science on Oct. 27, the researchers report that cancer cells that are on the verge of self-destruction are more likely to...

BOSTON and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A potentially groundbreaking approach to predicting cancer patient response to certain treatments is described today in the electronic version of Science Magazine. The paper describing the technology, called BH3 profiling, is published by Dr. Anthony Letai and colleagues at Boston's Dana Farber Cancer Institute. The technology assesses the ability of a key part of the cancer cell to respond to chemotherapies. This understanding...

Awards Granted to 20 Researchers in Basic Science, Clinical and Translational Research NEW YORK, Oct. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Understanding the genomic structure of lung cancer cells and the mechanisms that trigger their growth is the basis of research underway by Adam Bass, MD, winner of the 2011 Scientific Merit Award who will be celebrated at The Lung Cancer Research Foundation's third annual Lung Cancer Symposium, on November 1st in New York. Dr. Bass is one of 20...

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute have found strikingly high levels of a bacterium in colorectal cancers, a sign that it might contribute to the disease and potentially be a key to diagnosing, preventing, and treating it. In a study published online in the journal Genome Research, investigators report the discovery of an abnormally large number of Fusobacterium cells in nine colorectal tumor samples. While the spike does not necessarily mean the bacterium...

Deactivating a single protein corrects sickle cell disease in mice; study opens door to new generation of therapies for this and other blood disorders BOSTON, Oct. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Flipping a single molecular switch can reverse illness in a model of sickle cell disease, according to a study by researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. When turned off, the switch, a protein called BCL11A, allows the body to manufacture red blood cells...

Recently approved drug for treatment of an adult cancer is the latest example of how St. Jude scientific discoveries are used to identify new therapies that benefit patients regardless of age MEMPHIS, Tenn., Sept. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A drug recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of an adult cancer targets a malfunctioning gene discovered more than a decade earlier at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The story highlights how scientific...