The Power to Tell Your Story

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Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have found a lack of conclusive evidence to support previously published studies confirming the safety of pregnancy following breast-cancer treatment. After conducting a critical review of the literature, investigators found limited information regarding the safety of pregnancy and other childbearing issues of concern to young breast-cancer survivors. Embargoed: April 1, 1997 6:00 a.m.

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Physicians from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the University of Rochester's Cancer Center have created a promising compound that recruits the body's immune system to target and wipe out cancer cells in the liver. In a study with laboratory rats, the majority of animals injected with the vaccine were cancer-free, while similar animals that did not receive the vaccine typically had dozens of tumors. The work was reported in a recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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In a study that sheds new light on how the brain organizes language, researchers report that the organization of the brain's language-production region in bilingual individuals is directly related to whether they learned a second language as toddlers (simultaneously with their native language) or as young adults. Using a new, non-invasive imaging method called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers found that bilingual persons who acquire a second language as young adults have distinct areas in the brain associated with their native and second languages.

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The blood brain barrier has long been regarded as the body's most formidable gatekeeper. It is a virtual fortress of blood vessels that forms a protective barrier between the blood and brain, screening any chemical that attempts to access the brain's inner sanctum. But the blood brain barrier's protective role can be a drawback, as it also blocks access to substances that would be good for the brain. One such substance is vitamin C, an antioxidant that is essential to keep the central nervous system functioning properly.

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Physicians at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have developed an innovative treatment for patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) that results in long-term survival without cancer recurrence.

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Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) researchers delving into the fundamental mechanisms underlying one form of leukemia have learned how to interfere with the genetic changes that lead to this potentially fatal type of cancer.

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Sunscreens may not protect users from developing the deadly skin cancer, melanoma -- one of the fastest rising cancers in the United States, reports Dr. Marianne Berwick, an epidemiologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

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Ever since vitamin C was found to prevent scurvy -- a disease that has killed millions of people throughout history -- scientists have known that the vitamin plays an essential role in the body's defense against disease. Immune cells, for example, are known to accumulate and retain high levels of vitamin C, but just how this process occurs, has largely remained a mystery.

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A new genetic mutation has been found to modestly increase the risk of hereditary breast cancer in women of Ashkenazi Jewish descent but has an especially pronounced effect in those who already carry the other well-known BRCA mutations linked to the disease, report scientists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and other research centers in the September issue of Nature Genetics.

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In a study of the protein p27, researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have confirmed the existence of at least two different types of prostate cancer.

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Over the past decade, knowledge about how the immune system can be used to fight cancer has greatly increased. Not only have scientists learned that the immune system can recognize certain proteins on cancer cells, but they have used this knowledge to develop vaccines that may help to prevent cancer recurrence.

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Arsenic, a notorious poison, may be on the verge of overcoming its bad reputation. Two years ago, Chinese researchers reported that low doses of arsenic trioxide induced remission in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), prompting physicians in the West to undertake their own pilot study.

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Cancer patients should check hosptial's expertise before having surgery. Researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center found that mortality rates were 40 to 80% lower in hospitals that had the most experience performing a particular surgical procedure.

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A new standard for cancer care and comfort has been established with the opening of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's Laurence S. Rockefeller Outpatient Pavilion.

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Memorial Sloan-Kettering's new Laurence S. Rockefeller Outpatient Pavilion will house the country's first fully computerized photography system to follow patients at risk for melanoma,a deadly skin cancer.

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Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center scientists have achieved a major milestone: the first-ever molecular "snapshot" of a new drug interacting with its cellular target.

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Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have found that cancer tumors consume large amounts of vitamin C, they reported in the September 15 issue of Cancer Research.

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Although it has been known that a mutation in both copies of the PTEN tumor suppressor gene impairs a cell's ability to program its death, researchers have found that losing function of only one of the pair is enough to disrupt this vital signaling mechanism.

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Dr. Harold E. Varmus, Director of the National Institutes of Health and co-recipient of the 1989 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, will be the next President and Chief Executive Officer of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

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Research conducted by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center investigators sheds new light on why existing therapies don't stop the prostate cancer from returning and was published in the November 3rd issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

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Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center researchers have shown that a new combination treatment increases the number of patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) who can receive potentially curative bone marrow transplantation.

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A genetic mutation may account for up to nine percent of the colon cancer cases diagnosed in the United States, report scientists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and other research centers in the November 15 issue of Cancer Research.

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A treatment combining traditional chemotherapy with medication delivered through a surgically implanted pump has been found to increase life expectancy in patients with advanced colorectal cancer that has spread to the liver, reports an oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

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A scientific award has been established to honor Dr. Paul A. Marks on the occasion of his retirement as President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

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Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center report the development of a new chemotherapy regimen for first line treatment for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. (New England Journal of Medicine, 9-28-00)

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"Knocking out" a particular gene protects the ovaries of mice from damage, researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, along with colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital and other institutions, have discovered. (Nature Medicine, 10-00)

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A new prognostic tool, developed at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, could aid physicians and patients in decision making regarding treatment options for early stage prostate cancer and in identifying those patients who are at high risk of recurrence following radiation therapy. (Journal of Clinical Oncology, 9-28-00)

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Women taking tamoxifen to prevent breast cancer receive no benefit from routine screening for endometrial cancer, a known risk associated with the drug. (Journal of Clinical Oncology, 10-15-00)

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Doctors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center are developing new ways to more effectively treat lung cancer with radiation therapy by using enhanced imaging to better define tumors during treatment planning, and delivering higher doses with fewer side effects.

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Patients with clinically localized prostate cancer have a better chance of beating the disease with higher doses of radiation, which can be safely and precisely delivered to the tumor with few side effects using three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy.

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Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center today launched a lay language database of high priority trials for its web site.

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The Cancer Information Service of New York was recently awarded one of four grants totaling $932,000 from the National Cancer Institute to improve awareness of and access to Internet-based cancer information in minority communities throughout the country.

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Understanding why a terminally-ill patient wishes to die has become a focus for improving end of life care as well as a crucial part of the physician-assisted suicide debate.

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A case-control study of 891 people who regularly used a cellular phone showed no statistical association between the amount of cell phone usage and the likelihood of developing brain cancer. (JAMA, 12-20-00)

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Hospital experience is one of many important factors patients must consider when deciding where to have their surgery. New evidence published this week offers information that could aid patients in making that challenging decision. (JAMA)

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What makes one patient's cancer more aggressive than another? Why does a patient's cancer develop resistance to a previously effective chemotherapy drug? A genetic mutation of the MAD2 protein may provide the answer to both of these questions.

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Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center report that inactivation of just one copy of a gene called PTEN and both copies of a gene called p27 that leads to prostate cancer in mice 100 percent of the time. (Nature Genetics, 2-01)

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Nominations are now being sought for the first Paul Marks Prizes for Cancer Research. The prizes will recognize significant discoveries made by outstanding investigators up to the age of 45 at the time of the award.

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Researchers are one step closer to the performance of therapeutic cloning in mice, with an eye not toward developing another mouse, but generating an unlimited source of genetically matched therapeutic dopamine cells. The technique may have implications for Parkinson's disease research.

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A new drug for the treatment of advanced-stage colorectal cancer can shrink tumors in some patients who have developed resistance to other chemotherapy agents.

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A new study indicates that prostate cancer patients who have their prostate removed today have a better prognosis than patients who underwent the procedure ten years ago.

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The use of potentially curative chemotherapy following surgery for stage III colon cancer declines precipitously with patients' advancing age. The likelihood of a patient being offered this treatment option, shown in previous studies to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence and mortality by 30 percent, declined as their age at diagnosis increased.

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Patients with lung cancer live longer if they have surgery at hospitals with experience, according to a study conducted by researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

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Damage to the gastrointestinal tract, lung, and brain has long been the dose-limiting factor for chemotherapy and radiation therapy. But until now scientists did not know which cells targeted within those organs were responsible for the lethal responses.

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Radiologists at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center are using computer-aided detection to second-read mammograms at the Center's Breast Examination Center of Harlem. The technology uses a computer to scan mammograms for abnormalities and may improve early detection of breast cancer with screening mammography by almost 20 percent.

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Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have pioneered the use of computerized devices to help patients and their physicians decide among the major treatment choices for early stage prostate cancer. Such tools, called nomograms, have been developed to predict outcomes for surgery and radiation therapy, and now, brachytherapy (radioactive seed implantations) for early stage prostate cancer.

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Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Medical College of Cornell University have discovered that tumor angiogenesis occurs when precursor cells from the bone marrow are mobilized and recruited by VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) stem cells to the tumor blood vessels.

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Following are highlights from research presented by researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) during this week's annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology (ASTRO).

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Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have developed a molecular nanogenerator that releases a cascade of atomic fragments known as alpha particles on the inside of cancer cells.

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Smokers who undergo low-dose helical computed tomographic scanning for lung cancer were motivated to quit smoking, according to a study conducted by researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, and the Hospital for Special Surgery.