NCI Cancer Bulletin for April 5, 2011

“A lot of the easy stuff [in cancer research] has been done,” Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn said over the weekend at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), currently under way in Orlando, FL. The “face of cancer research” is much more interdisciplinary today than in the past, and this is how new frontiers will be explored, she added.

Dr. Blackburn, who is president of AACR and a Nobel laureate for her pioneering research on telomeres, noted that life sciences, physical sciences, and engineering are converging: “Over and over, we are seeing what we thought were separate disciplines come together.” Read more > >

Lung cancer death rates in women decreased for the first timePatients in remission for at least 2 years are more likely to die from causes other than leukemiaStudy finds less than 10 percent of second solid cancers could be linked to radiation therapyAntibody spurs immune system to attack tissue surrounding tumorsStudy of 50 genomes underscores the heterogeneity of breast cancerResearchers observed some preliminary signs of anticancer effects for several cancersAssay identifies proteins that may detect mesothelioma in people exposed to asbestos

NCI recently released The Nation's Investment in Cancer Research, a professional judgement budget for fiscal year 2012. The theme for this year’s document is “Cancer: Changing the Conversation.”

Selected articles from past issues of the NCI Cancer Bulletin are available in Spanish.

The NCI Cancer Bulletin is produced by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), which was established in 1937. Through basic, clinical, and population-based biomedical research and training, NCI conducts and supports research that will lead to a future in which we can identify the environmental and genetic causes of cancer, prevent cancer before it starts, identify cancers that do develop at the earliest stage, eliminate cancers through innovative treatment interventions, and biologically control those cancers that we cannot eliminate so they become manageable, chronic diseases.

For more information about cancer, call 1-800-4-CANCER or visit http://www.cancer.gov.

NCI Cancer Bulletin staff can be reached at ncicancerbulletin@mail.nih.gov.