cancer

Competition for scarce funding and tenure may be prompting some scientists to cut corners.

How Flawed Science Is Undermining Good Medicine

9:21am April 06, 2017

U.S. taxpayers pay $30 billion a year to fund biomedical research aimed at finding better treatments. But competition for scarce funding and tenure may be prompting some scientists to cut corners.

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Emails Reveal Monsanto's Tactics To Defend Glyphosate Against Cancer Fears

3:57pm March 15, 2017

by Dan Charles

Internal emails show Monsanto executives scrambling to counter a U.N. agency's finding that glyphosate, the chemical in Roundup, can cause cancer. One email proposed "ghost-writing" scientific papers.

Cancer patient John Krahne has delayed taking a prescribed cancer drug because it was too expensive. He walks near his home in Santa Rosa, Calif.

As Drug Costs Soar, People Delay Or Skip Cancer Treatments

2:46pm March 15, 2017

by Liz Szabo

Cancer patients increasingly delay or skip taking medication because they can't afford it. New drugs that can cost $100,000 or more a year mean more people suffering "financial toxicity."

Sometimes fast-acting chemotherapy can help slow an aggressive cancer — and give the slower-acting immunotherapies a chance to work.

Old-Style Chemo Is Still A Mainstay In The Age Of Targeted Cancer Therapy

10:37am March 13, 2017

by Richard Harris

Scientists hunting cures for cancer hope to find therapies with fewer side effects. But there's also new evidence that old-style chemotherapy sometimes helps gentler treatments work better.

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Melanoma survivors may still be taking chances with sun exposure.

Some Melanoma Survivors Are Still Getting Too Much Sun Exposure

2:45pm March 02, 2017

by Katherine Hobson

Getting people to change their health behaviors is hard. A cancer diagnosis may increase motivation to reduce risk, but it doesn't necessarily make the change easier.

Nancy Roach at a conference in 2016. She's long worked as a patient's advocate and recently teamed up with scientists to help improve the design of studies, as well as to improve clinical care.

Advice From Patients On A Study's Design Makes For Better Science

3:18pm February 24, 2017

by Richard Harris

Increasingly, advocates for patients are in the room when big medical studies are designed. They demand answers to big questions: "Will the results of this study actually help anybody?"

Generic drugs used for other conditions are being given a second look as cancer treatments.

A Pinworm Medication Is Being Tested As A Potential Anti-Cancer Drug

2:46pm January 30, 2017

by Allison Aubrey

Drugs that have been on the market for decades are being investigated for new uses. One is a medication used around the world to treat pinworm infections.

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Left: Ravi Bellamkonda, Vinik Dean of the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University Right:A fluorescent stained image of a tumor marking bacterial nanocarriers in pink, cancer cell nuclei in blue, and human mitochondria (another indicator of tumor c

Science

Salmonella Reprogrammed For One Mission: Seek and Destroy Cancer

1:00pm January 20, 2017

by Shawn Fitzmaurice

www.wfdd.org/story/virus-kills-cancerA team of biomedical engineers, including Duke University Pratt School of Engineering's Dean, Dr. Ravi Bellamkonda, has programmed Salmonella bacteria to seek and destroy brain cancer.

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Research with living systems is never simple, scientists say, so there are many possible sources of variation in any experiment, ranging from the animals and cells to the details of lab technique.

What Does It Mean When Cancer Findings Can't Be Reproduced?

4:54pm January 18, 2017

by Richard Harris

Results from some key cancer studies were different when the experiments were redone in different labs. Scientists don't yet know why but say the answer could have health implications for patients.

Patients always have the right to appeal an insurer's decision to turn down their request for care at a major cancer center. But the chances an appeal will be honored can vary widely by type of cancer and an individual's case.

Obamacare Plans Don't Always Include Top Cancer Centers

5:54pm January 03, 2017

by Michelle Andrews

In a number of states, including big ones such as New York and Texas, leading cancer centers like Memorial Sloan Kettering aren't included in insurers' networks. What's a patient's recourse?