About Cancer.

Fastest and Efficient Detecting Cancer Cells.

BRITISH scientists have found a new and faster way of studying a crucial class of cancer cells, called cancer stem cell, which they say should speed up work on developing drugs against them.

The researchers from Oxford University developed a way of obtaining samples rich in cancer stem cells from bowel cancer cell lines and keeping them in a lab - a method which allows cells to be repeatedly tested against possible drug treatments.

Working with cell lines is a much more convenient way to study these cells than using samples taken from human patients or using animal models

We can now evaluate anti-cancer drugs better to see whether they attack cancer stem cells. If you don't attack these cells, the cancer can grow out again.

Allowing for repeatable, high-speed screens of drugs, as well as basic studies on the nature of cancer stem cells and their role in producing tumours. 'In the long term, it should allow but with the new technique, work on stem cells could be far quicker and more productive, the development of more useful, safe and specific drugs targeting cancer stem cells,' said Trevor Yeung of the university's Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, who also worked on the study.

Childhood cancer DNA project

WASHINGTON - RESEARCHERS announced a new project call childhood cancer DNA project. This project try to discover genes in childhood tumors previously unknown causes of cancer.

The research is to help tailor treatments for children to spare them radiation and chemotherapy. Our belief and our expectation is that pediatric cancer is going to have different genetic alterations than adult cancers,' Dr Shapiro said dean of Washington University School of Medicine.

The research is collaboration between St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis and Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis.

Dr Shapiro said the team will be able to see how different children fared on different treatments, and look for changes in DNA that might be used to explain these differences. That, in turn, may lead to genetic tests that can guide doctors to the best treatments for their young patients, and may in the longer run help in developing better treatments for childhood cancer.

The study, projected to cost US$65 million (S$91 million) over three years, will start with 600 childhood cancer patients. 'We are on the threshold of a revolution in our understanding of the origins of cancer,' Dr William Evans, St Jude director and chief executive officer, said in a statement. 'For the first time in history, we have the tools to identify all of the genetic abnormalities that turn a white blood cell into a leukemia cell or a brain cell into a brain tumor.'