Category Archive: Medical Update

Weekly Round Up

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Time for this week’s round-up of the best of the blog posts which I’ve read over the past week. These are the posts that have moved me, taught me something, inspired me, and which… Continue reading

Cancer discovery offers hope of tackling spread of disease

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Scientists have discovered how cancerous cells can “elbow” their way out of tumours, offering clues for new drugs to prevent cancers spreading. They say they have identified a protein called JAK which helps… Continue reading

New research identifies breast cancer patients likely to respond to tamoxifen

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Cancer researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson and an international team of collaborators have discovered a biomarker in breast cancer that may help identify which women will respond to anti-estrogen therapy.… Continue reading

Scientists discover key breast cancer gene

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Cancer experts have identified a gene which can cause a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer to develop. ZNF703 is the first “oncogene” to be discovered in five years. It is overactive in… Continue reading

Latest study finds radical surgery to remove lymph nodes not always necessary

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I’ve always had a problem with the fact that I had axillary clearance of my lymph nodes when I now believe a sentinel lymph node biopsy would have been the better option (as it… Continue reading

Breast cancer survivors at greater risk of hip fractures

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According to the latest research,  a combination of early menopause due to breast cancer treatment and common drugs used to treat breast cancer, could be weakening the bones of breast cancer survivors once… Continue reading

New test can predict breast cancer outcomes

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Researchers from McGill University’s Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre (GCRC), the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI MUHC), the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School have discovered… Continue reading

Updates from San Antonio Breast Cancer Conference

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I look forward each year to hearing about the latest studies to emerge from the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Conference – an international scientific symposium for interaction and exchange among basic scientists… Continue reading

Scientists crack ‘entire genetic code’ of cancer

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  Scientists have unlocked the entire genetic code of two of the most common cancers – skin and lung – a move they say could revolutionise cancer care. Not only will the cancer… Continue reading

Cancer drug case study: Tyverb

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Jo Waters, 55, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002. She had a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.  Then she had six cycles of Herceptin. It appeared to work. “I had two years of… Continue reading