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 Researchers Find Clues to Disease Spread and OriginStudies by Johns Hopkins researchers describe two new potential targets for cancer drugs, one that takes aim at the beginning of the tumor growth process and origins of cancer cells and the other at the process of tumor spread. Reports on the work, published in the August 1 issue of Cancer Research, describe experiments with mice and cell cultures that could lead to new treatments for childhood brain tumors and adult prostate cancers.
 Heat Therapy for Cancer May Be Key to "Lance Armstrong Effect"Experts at Johns Hopkins have linked scientific evidence spanning more than 30 years to suggest an explanation for why testicular cancer patients like seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong survive far better than patients with other advanced cancers. Their commentary in the July 26 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals how a simple factor -- heat sensitivity -- may make testicular cancer cells more susceptible to standard treatments and die off more readily. Heat also may offer a strategy against other malignancies as well, they said. "If we understand how heat may naturally help kill testicular cancer cells, then perhaps we can make it happen in other solid tumors," said Robert Getzenberg, Ph.D., professor and director of urology research at Johns Hopkins. "More than 80 percent of men with widespread testicular cancer can achieve a cure. In other cancers, the cure rate is far less."
 Gene Screen for Breast Cancer Better Than Pathologist's "Eye"Johns Hopkins scientists have found that a method they developed to screen body fluids for certain kinds of cells and some of their genetic blueprint is twice as accurate at spotting breast cancer cells as a pathologist's view with a microscope. The screen, developed by Sara Sukumar, Ph.D., and Mary Jo Fackler, Ph.D., first separates cells from fluid, then sifts through the cells' DNA for chemical tags on certain genes associated with cancer. Reporting in the June 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, the scientists say they have tested their screening tool on breast fluid, in search of cells shed from growing tumors. "This screening method can see what the eye cannot see," says Sukumar, who is the Barbara B. Rubenstein Professor of Oncology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. "It can be a valuable tool, in combination with pathological review, for breast cancer as well as other diseases where fluid can be obtained relatively easily, such as lung, head and neck cancers, pancreatic and cervical cancers."
  Johns Hopkins Researchers at Clinical MeetingRead news tips based on select abstracts, posters or presentations by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers following the 42nd annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, held June 2-6, 2006 in Atlanta. Topics Include: Changing Diet May Be Key To Japan's Rising Esophageal Cancer Rates; Sexes Differ in Survival Using Triple Drug Combo for Lung Cancer; Melanoma Treatments Vary By Region, Insurance and Hospital Type; and Hopkins Breast Cancer Expert to be Next ASCO President
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