Nint 2_ Oncology Articles

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1. Google Algorithm Finds Cancer BiomarkersMain Category: Cancer / Oncology

Article Date: 17 May 2012 - 14:00 PDT

Seven proteins that can help physicians evaluate how aggressive a patient's cancer is andwhether or not they should receive chemotherapy have been identified by Germanresearchers.

Using a strategy similar to Google's PageRank algorithm, the researchers from Dresden Universityof Technology, Germany, were able to rank around 20,000 proteins by their genetic relevance to theprogression ofpancreatic cancer. The study is published in PLoS Computational Biology.

The team used their own version of the Google algorithm in order to identify new biomarkers, whichare molecules produced by cancercells. Although biomarkers can help physicians detect cancerearlier, they are often difficult to find and time consuming. In addition, biomarkers found in differentstudies for the same types of cancer almost never overlap.

However, the team was able to avoid this problem by using the Google strategy. The researchers

made use of the fact that proteins in a cell are linked via a network of physical and regulatoryinteractions; the 'protein Facebook' so to speak.

Christof Winter explained:

"Once we added the network information in our analysis, our biomarkers became more

reproducible."

Using the Google algorithm and this network information the researchers found a considerable

overlap with a previous study from the University of North Carolina. In this overlap, the researchers

were able to identify a protein which can evaluate aggressiveness in pancreatic cancer.

Before these new biomarkers can be used in clinical practice they need to be validated in a larger

follow-up study. However, one problem remains - how to turn these insights into new medications

which slow down cancer progression. A clinical trial on a pancreas cancer drug is currently being

conducted by the team together with the Dresden-based biotech company RESprotect.

Written By Grace Rattue

Copyright: Medical News Today

Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

Grace Rattue. (2012, May 17). "Google Algorithm Finds Cancer Biomarkers." Medical

News Today. Retrieved from

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/245537.php.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/cancer-oncology/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/pancreatic-cancer/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/pancreatic-cancer/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/pancreatic-cancer/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/cancer-oncology/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/pancreatic-cancer/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/cancer-oncology/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/cancer-oncology/


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2. The Favored Treatment For Kidney Cancer Is Robot-Assisted Surgery

Main Category: Cancer / OncologyAlso Included In:Urology / Nephrology; IT / Internet / E-mail

Article Date: 17 May 2012 - 1:00 PDT

Robot-assisted surgery has replaced another minimally invasive operation as the main procedure totreat kidney cancerwhile sparing part of the diseased organ, and with comparable results, accordingto a new research study by Henry Ford Hospital urologists.

While the study shows that robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPD), available only since 2004,may also offer fewer complications than laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN), the researcherscautioned that available data did not allow them to consider such factors as surgical expertise andthe complexity of eachcancer.

"To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to compare complication rates after RAPN andLPN," says Quoc-Dien Trinh, M.D., a Fellow at Henry Ford Hospital's Vattikuti Urology Institute andlead author of the study.

The findings will be presented at the American Urological Association's Annual Meeting, May 19 to23, in Atlanta.

Partial nephrectomy or PN, involves surgically removing only the diseased part of a cancerouskidney, compared to the once-standard treatment - radical nephrectomy or RN - in which the entirekidney, part of the ureter, the adrenal gland, and some surrounding tissue are removed. The lessextreme PN became possible with improvements in 3D scanning technology, and not only offersobvious advantages over RN, but earlier studies found it results in an overall drop in relatedcardiovascular complications and death.

In LPN, the surgeon removes the kidney tumor through a small incision rather than a wide opening??" less invasive but more technically challenging. The increasingly common use of surgical robotsallows surgeons to operate with more precision in minimally invasive procedures.

Using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), the Henry Ford Hospital researchers identified 1,174patients who underwent minimally invasive PN from October 2008 to December 2009. Of those, 72.5percent of the patients had robot-assisted surgery, while the remaining underwent LPN. Theresearchers found:

Overall complication rates both during and after surgery were essentially the same, as was

the rate of blood transfusion and extended time in the hospital.

However, "statistically significant differences" were found for individual complications. Thoseundergoing RAPN had fewer neurologic, urinary, and bleeding problems.

A slightly higher percentage of LPN patients were white, but there was no difference

according to gender, comorbidity (diseases or disorders in addition to kidney cancer), insurance

status, or income level.

Significantly more RAPNs were performed at non-teaching hospitals, and most of those were

in the Midwest. LPNs were more common in the Northeast.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/cancer-oncology/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/urology-nephrology/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/urology-nephrology/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/urology-nephrology/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/it/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/164659.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/cancer-oncology/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/cancer-oncology/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/cancer-oncology/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/urology-nephrology/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/it/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/164659.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/cancer-oncology/


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"From a practical perspective, our results indicate that on average, similar intraoperative and

postoperative outcomes, including transfusion rates, prolonged length of stay, and in-hospital

mortality, are expected whether the patient undergoes RAPN or LPN," Trinh says.

"But these results should be interpreted with care, because the NIS is unable to account for disease

characteristics. Specifically, it's not known if more complex cases, or surgery for higher stage andgrade cancers, are more often performed by robotic or laparoscopic procedures."

Kidney cancer rates in the U.S. have increased in recent years, in part because better technology

and imaging techniques have allowed doctors to find more suspicious masses in the kidney. Much of

the same technology has allowed surgeons to find and remove those tumors.

At the same time, as studies showed that PN was as effective as RN in controlling cancer while

resulting in better survival rates, it has become the standard treatment in both the U.S. and Europe.

Henry Ford Health System. (2012, May 17). "The Favored Treatment For Kidney

Cancer Is Robot-Assisted Surgery." Medical News Today. Retrieved from

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/245480.php.

3. Some Dietary Supplements May Increase Cancer Risk

Main Category: Nutrition / DietAlso Included In:Regulatory Affairs / Drug Approvals; Cancer / OncologyArticle Date: 17 May 2012 - 1:00 PDT

Beta-carotene, selenium and folic acid - taken up to three times their recommended daily allowance,these supplements are probably harmless. But taken at much higher levels as some supplement

manufacturers suggest, these three supplements have now been proven to increase the risk of

developing a host ofcancers.

"It's not that these nutrients are toxic - they're essential and we need them, but we need them in a

certain balance," says Tim Byers, MD, MPH, professor of epidemiology at the Colorado School of

Public Health and associate director for prevention and control at the University of Colorado Cancer

Center.

Byers is senior author of a commentary recently published in the Journal of the National Cancer

Institute that discusses the clinical and policy implications of the increased cancer risk from highdose dietary supplements.

"We have a window into less than half of the biology of what these nutrients are doing," Byers says.

"We say generalized things about them, calling them an antioxidant or an essential mineral, but true

biology turns out to be more complex than that. The effects of these supplements are certainly not

limited to the label we give them. And, as we've seen, sometimes the unintended effects include

increased cancer risk."
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/245480.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/nutrition-diet/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/regulatoryaffairs/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/regulatoryaffairs/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/regulatoryaffairs/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/cancer-oncology/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/cancer-oncology/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/245480.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/nutrition-diet/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/regulatoryaffairs/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/cancer-oncology/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/cancer-oncology/


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Currently the FDA regulates dietary supplements as food, but, as Byers and colleagues suggest,

supplements, especially at high doses, are more accurately described as inhabiting a mid-ground

between food and drugs. Like drugs, supplement ingredients are biologically active - sometimes for

better and sometimes for worse.

"We need to do a better job as a society in ensuring that the messages people get about value

versus risk is accurate for nutritional supplements," Byers says. "My conclusion is that taking high

doses of any particular nutrient is more likely to be a bad thing than a good thing."

University of Colorado Denver. (2012, May 17). "Some Dietary Supplements May

Increase Cancer Risk." Medical News Today. Retrieved from

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/245467.php.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/245467.phphttp://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/245467.php

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