cancer
Carcinogens: Case Studies of FDA Foul-Ups
Most Americans consider the FDA an infallible guiding force for consumption-related information and decisions. Yet a closer examination of its “approved” lists may reveal the FDA’s dated and inaccurate notions of certain substances, especially known carcinogens, that are still found in everyday consumer goods like soft drinks, coffee, bread, and bottled water. Unfortunately, the FDA’s [...]
Organs-on-Chips: Rethinking Animal Testing
If a technology developed by a group at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering gains widespread adoption, it could disrupt the entire pharmaceutical research and development industry. In both academia and industry alike, research involving the discovery and development of drugs and toxins has almost always involved overcoming certain degrees of in vivo animal [...]
Fighting Cancer by Inhibiting Telomerase
Finding new ways to improve cancer therapies has presented opportunities and challenges to biomedicine and biotechnology. After learning that telomere length might serve as an effective predictor of cancer risk and survival, scientists have looked to these chromosomal ends for purposes that go beyond their use as signals of cell deterioration. By inhibiting telomerase, a [...]
Continued Progression in Cancer Diagnostics and Discussion
Editor’s Note: In this article the author continues an interview with Dr. Richard Schilsky, previously covered in “Cancer: A New Age in Treatment?” “As our population ages, cancer will increase in incidence and in prevalence,” says Dr. Richard Schilsky. As I continue my interview with Dr. Schilsky, however, he appears to be promoting a more [...]
Save the Drama for Your Mama: Do You Really Need That Screening?
My grandfather recently went into the hospital with appendicitis. Appendectomies are simple – open the abdomen, sew the patient up, send him home. Unfortunately, when the doctors opened him up, they discovered that the real source of his illness was not bacteria, but a tumor; he had stage four colon cancer. As I write this, [...]
Using a Virus to Treat Cancer
Doctors estimate that in 2011, 1.6 million Americans were diagnosed with cancer, with around 600,000 who died [1]. Needless to say, any new cancer treatment will save millions of lives. The persistent endeavor to cure the world’s seventh most common cause of death [2] has led to many novel breakthroughs and revolutionary innovations. While chemotherapy [...]
Cancer: A New Age in Treatment?
Cancer cells always seem to have a way of evading the body’s natural defenses and cell death. Thus, cancer has proved to be one of the most difficult diseases to treat. However, the prognosis for the disease is shifting its course. Recently, researchers across the world have begun to create vaccines that fight cancer cells [...]
Nanorobots: Novel Technology for Cancer Therapy
Human knowledge, with all its growth and development, is still in its initial stages of finding efficient ways to treat cancer. The elevated number of cancer patients puts cancer treatment amongst the top priority of scientific research facilities. The advent of nanotechnology opens new windows that promise effective ways in locating the chemical sources, tracking [...]
Effects of Nuclear Power on Public Health: From Three Mile Island to Fukushima
Three Mile Island. Chernobyl. Fukushima. Since the beginning of the Atomic Age, the use of nuclear energy technologies has been accompanied by numerous crises and persistent public health concerns. Currently, nuclear power has become an indispensable part in the ongoing search for alternative energy sources. By January 2011, 442 nuclear power plants operated globally to [...]
Methylation: The Cause of Brain Tumor?
When one thinks of the word “cancer” breast cancer, lung cancer, and skin cancer are among the various types that first come to mind. One type of cancer that is often neglected is Brain Tumor. According to the National Tumor Society, more than 500 people per day are diagnosed with primary or metastatic brain tumorand [...]
Hidden Obstacles in Cancer Research
While undeniable strides in medical research over the past few decades have proven invaluable in the search for a cancer cure, there is no shortage of obstacles that remain to be addressed. Perhaps the most evident are complications in the biology of the disease itself: among these, problems pertaining to cell identification and treatment specificity. [...]
MicroRNA as an identifying biomarker for cancer
By Rohit Patil, George Washington University Ulysses S. Grant once explained that the “art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.” Cancer is a war, on its own. The patients have to [...]
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