Latest Institute of Cancer Research Stories

By Lyndsay Moss THOUSANDS of men with prostate cancer could be helped by an "exciting" new drug which potentially represents the biggest step forward in treating the disease for 60 years, researchers revealed yesterday. The drug, abiraterone, could help prolong the lives of up to 10,000 men in the UK each year who suffer the most aggressive - and almost always fatal - form of the disease. The news came after a study found the drug led to tumours shrinking in up to 80 per cent of patients...

A WONDER pill blocks the advance of prostate cancer with hardly any side effects, it is claimed. Experts believe Abiraterone could treat eight out of 10 aggressive tumours that have resisted all other treatments. Trials have shown the drug, taken as daily pills, cuts cancer levels by 30 per cent in 80 per cent of men in three months. Patients in severe pain say they have been given a new lease of life by the drug. That has led to a "stampede" of men wanting to take part in clinical...

Researchers at The University of Nottingham have shown an association between certain past diagnostic radiation procedures and an increased risk of young-onset prostate cancer "” a rare form of prostate cancer which affects about 10 per cent of all men diagnosed with the disease.The study, the first of its kind to report the relationship between low dose ionizing radiation from diagnostic procedures and the risk of prostate cancer, was funded by the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation...

By Sam Wood PEOPLE living in the north of England are more likely to die from cancer than those living in the rest of the country, according to a report released today. The National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) says cancer deaths in the region are about 20% higher than the rest of England. Experts believe the north-south divide is due to a number of factors, especially higher smoking rates in the north, which are linked to increased risks of smoking-related cancers. In 2005, 68...

Breakthrough Breast Cancer today announce that UK scientists have discovered that a gene "“ named after the James Bond villain Scaramanga "“ can trigger the development of breasts. This has important implications for breast cancer, as reported in the journal Genes and Development. During the development of an embryo, formation of organs is tightly controlled by specific genes. In the case of breasts, this process controls the development of two breasts in humans but this can go awry,...