Body

Researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have discovered that breast stem cells are exquisitely sensitive to the female hormones oestrogen and progesterone, a finding that opens the way for the development of new preventions and treatments for breast cancer.

The discovery, by scientists in the institute's Stem Cells and Cancer and Bioinformatics divisions, also explains decades of evidence linking breast cancer risk to exposure to female hormones.

It has been published online today in the international journal Nature.

Chapel Hill, NC – Scientists have shown in multiple contexts that DNA damage over our lifetimes is a key mechanism behind the development of cancer and other age-related diseases. Not everyone gets these diseases, because the body has multiple mechanisms for repairing the damage caused to DNA by aging, the environment and other human behaviors – but the mechanisms behind certain kinds of DNA repair have not been well-understood.

Researchers at Uppsala University have developed a new method for identifying genetic variation, including mutations, in active genes. Hopes are strong that the method represents an important research tool that will lead to the development of new diagnostic tests.

A new study finds that Hispanics live in areas with more limited availability of colonoscopies and sigmoidoscopies for colorectal cancer screening. Published early online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that differences in areas' capacity for providing these procedures may explain why Hispanics are less likely to undergo colorectal cancer screening than non-Hispanic whites. Increasing screening may require efforts to improve the availability of endoscopy in areas with a high ethnic minority population.

Scientists are one step closer to developing a targeted therapy for lymphoma. New research, published by Cell Press in the April 13th issue of the journal Cancer Cell, identifies a specific small-molecule inhibitor that was nontoxic in animal experiments and could kill human lymphoma cells.

Until now there were only indirect evidence of the transfer of thyroid hormones from mother to fetus through the placenta during pregnancy. That event is very important because the maternal thyroid hormones appear to play a key role in the development of the nervous system and other organs of the fetus; so it's true that in case of maternal thyroid disease, such hypothyroidism, have a direct bearing on the unborn child with reduction, also significant, to its Q.I..

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Children with more body fat and less endurance than their fitter, leaner counterparts have stiffer arteries at a young age, Medical College of Georgia researchers said.

Stiff arteries are a hallmark of atherosclerosis, a typically adult condition in which blood vessels become clogged.