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NEWS, PUBLICATIONS, AND RELATED STORIES Increased expression of SULF2 enhances cancer cell growth and migration, whereas decreased expression reduces both. Deadly and difficult to treat, liver cancer has long resisted attempts by researchers to develop ways to prolong life and prevent recurrence. But Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute, reports in the April issue of Hepatology that the protein sulfatase 2 (SULF2) may provide one of the keys needed to begin the design of new therapies. View Abstract    Mouse study shows dopamine blocks tumor-feeding blood vessels "Sometimes new drugs may not be the answer. We looked instead at a novel use for an established product and have found very promising results," says Mayo Clinic oncology researcher Sujit Basu, M.D., Ph.D.  CT colonography, also known as virtual colonoscopy, underwent rigorous studies at Mayo Clinic for more than 10 years, while the stool DNA test was conceived and developed by Mayo Clinic researchers. View Related Agreement strengthens relationship and spawns new scientific collaborations "TGen takes seriously our commitment to work toward helping patients with cancer and other disorders. This announcement is another mechanism allowing TGen and Mayo faculty to work bi-directionally in a more seamless fashion," said Jeffrey Trent, Ph.D., TGen's president and scientific director. View Related  Research into the B7 molecules has been a "family affair" at Mayo. Many Mayo immunologists have joined together to tackle various aspects of their function and behavior and have discovered how they function. View Related   Study's authors recruit patients for a clinical trail, another step in this ongoing research "We are now quite convinced that in most patients with pancreatic cancer the diabetes is caused by the cancer and not the other way around," says Suresh Chari, M.D., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and the study's lead author. "Our next step is to identify a biomarker for pancreatic cancer-induced diabetes in order to screen patients with new-onset diabetes for early pancreatic cancer and provide surgical treatment as quickly as possible." View Abstract  Removing the entire kidney from younger patients with small kidney tumors may lead to decreased overall survival. "For patients with small kidney tumors, removal of the entire kidney may be associated with long-term consequences that we did not previously recognize when compared to removal of just the tumor," says the study's lead author, R. Houston Thompson, M.D., a Mayo Clinic urologist currently serving a fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. View Related   Procedure also could prevent recurrence "We show that if you kill tumor cells directly in the tumor itself, you can get a weak immunity against the tumor, but if you use this virus to kill tumor cells in the lymph nodes, you get a higher immunity against the tumor," says Richard Vile, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic specialist in molecular medicine and immunology and the study's principal investigator. View Abstract  News from Jacksonville, Fla. "Maintaining our FACT accreditation continues to be an important achievement for the transplant program," says program director, pediatric hematologist/oncologist Michael Joyce, M.D., Ph.D., with Nemours Children's Clinic. "The physicians, hematology/oncology nursing, allied health and laboratory staff at Mayo, Nemours and Wolfson all worked extremely hard to achieve this goal." View Related   Medical Edge Television Remember the story "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer?" When bad weather almost stopped Santa from delivering gifts on Christmas Eve? Well, the same thing almost happened to the Santa you're about to meet. But instead of dealing with bad weather, this Santa faced an even bigger problem. Throat cancer. And just as the legendary light from that story guided Santa through the storm, a laser light helped this Santa weather the storm of cancer. Read Script  Presented at the 2007 meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago Also called cryotherapy or cryosurgery, cryoablation is a procedure in which extreme cold is applied to the tumor using a cryoprobe, a hollow needle-like device filled with argon gas. The gas rapidly freezes the targeted tumor. View Related Presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology (ASTRO) "Most of these patients don't have other effective treatment options, because surgery is not possible if there are multiple tumors in their liver," says the study's lead investigator, Laura Vallow, M.D. "But with this radiotherapy, no new tumors developed in patients who responded and we find this to be very encouraging." View Related  Study presented at the American Society of Human Genetics Annual Meeting http://genetics.faseb.org/genetics/ashg/menu-annmeet.shtml View Related Up to 30 percent of patients with colon and rectal cancer may develop a bowel obstruction View Related       The findings may also be relevant to other cancers, such as breast, ovarian, prostate, bladder, lung and colon cancers, in which loss of sFRP-1 function is common. "Through understanding the important role sFRP-1 plays, we may be able to eventually tailor human therapies to restore its function in this type of kidney cancer and in other cancers," explains the study's senior investigator, John A. Copland, Ph.D., a molecular biologist at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. View Abstract Two Mayo Clinic Cancer Center Researchers Receive Honor Named professorships at Mayo Clinic represent the highest academic distinction for a faculty member. Faculty is appointed to a professorship through nomination and endorsement of their peers and then confirmed by Mayo Clinic senior leadership. Appointed individuals are recognized for distinguished achievement in their specialty areas and for service to the institution. View Related     Radiology researchers at Mayo Clinic have invented a diagnostic imaging tool with remarkable capabilities. It's called Magnetic Resonance Elastography or MRE. MRE can measure elasticity - detecting abnormal hardening of liver tissue - sparing some patients the need for a biopsy and allowing physicians to begin intervention aimed at treating their disease before it progresses to cause irreversible damage. View Related     Publication: Journal of Clinical Oncology -- June 4, 2007 A Final Report of the AIO Colorectal Study Group (Association of Medical Oncology within the German Cancer Society) View Related  Mayo Clinic Cancer Center had researchers from many disciplines presenting more than 60 oral abstracts and dozens of posters, also educational sessions and other special events throughout the 2007 ASCO program, June 1-5. View Related  The National Institutes of Health chose Mayo Clinic as one of the first 12 institutions to receive Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) in October 2006. "There are two objects in medical education: to heal the sick and advance the science." - Dr. Charles H. Mayo View Related  Yuan-Ping Pang, Ph.D. established the Computer-Aided Molecular Design Laboratory (CAMDL) to learn more about how biological systems function and to establish models that could lead to new treatments for infectious diseases and cancer. View Related  Special Event: June 3, 2007 -- Rochester, Minn. "This celebration of life is for everyone," says Janine Kokal, local planning committee chair and a Mayo Clinic nurse educator. This is a free event, but reservations are required by May 28, 2007. To register, call the American Cancer Society at 507-424-4602 or 1-888-535-4227 (toll free). View Related   Mayo Clinic leads multi-center study of 100 patients First author of the study, Virender K. Sharma, M.D., gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, is encouraged by the results, calling the study "a very important milestone in the advancement of this ablative technology for our patients with Barrett's esophagus." View Related   From studies reviewing basic laboratory science, to clinical trials and the final translation of that research to individualized patient care, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center has a broad portfolio of presentations at the 2007 AACR meeting. View Related Clinical Trial Stopped Early Because of Very Positive Results in Treatment Arm A large clinical trial has been halted early because gastrointestinal stromal tumor patients taking Gleevec after surgery did so much better than patients who did not take the drug. The Phase III trial was conducted by the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG), an NCI Cooperative Group, in collaboration with Cancer and Leukemia Group B, South West Oncology Group, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, and National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group. ACOSOG is led by Group Co-chairs Dr David Ota of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, the site of the operations office, and Dr Heidi Nelson of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, the site of the Biostatistics. View Related   Early findings showing short-term success in more than 90 percent of selected patients are published in the March 2007 issue of Radiology. "This procedure appears to be a good option for some patients," says Thomas Atwell, M.D., Mayo Clinic radiologist and the study's primary investigator. "It makes their hospital stay and recovery time very short and surgical stress is minimal." View Related   Medical Edge Newspaper Readers: A cancer diagnosis is frightening. But the number of cancer survivors continues to grow, thanks to new and improved treatments and earlier diagnosis. More than 10 million Americans with a history of cancer were alive in January 2002. One in every six people over age 65 has survived cancer. It's encouraging to look at the progress... View Related  In the largest single-institution retrospective study to date, researchers at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center have shown that giving patients both radiation and chemotherapy after completely removing invasive pancreatic cancer may improve survival rates. Drs. Miller and Corsini and their fellow researchers think these findings are important to clinicians worldwide. "While long-term outcomes with pancreatic cancer are generally poor," Dr. Corsini says, "our findings show that including both chemotherapy and radiation following surgery may significantly improve patient survival rates." Mayo currently uses a treatment strategy for most patients that includes a combination of radiation and chemotherapy after surgery. View Related   Intent on incorporating the patient's voice into cancer research and care, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center investigators have sought out the best practices, promising techniques and novel applications for quality of life (QOL) assessment. "We expect that QOL assessments will someday become as routine as having your blood pressure checked," says Dr. Jeff Sloan. "After all, if the best interests of the patient are what we seek, incorporating their needs into regular care is imperative." View Abstract  Physicians at Mayo Clinic are now using tiny glass bubbles filled with radioactive material to deliver high doses of tumor-killing radiation directly to liver tumors. "The technique is a clever way of exploiting the differences in blood supply between the liver tumor and normal liver tissue," says Mayo Clinic interventional radiologist Ricardo Paz-Fumagalli, M.D. He, along with Mayo Clinic radiation oncologists, deliver the therapy to patients. View Related  Publication: Mayo Clinic Proceedings -- Dec. 2006 Optimism was associated with a higher QOL in survivors of thyroid cancer compared with survivors of head and neck cancer. After adjusting for age, sex, and disease stage, optimism was not associated with QOL for survivors of head and neck cancer. Optimism was more associated with the mental rather than physical QOL subscales. View Related  Seeking to prevent cancer using anti-inflammatory medication "While searching for the cure is important, even more so is finding effective ways to prevent cancer," says Paul Limburg, M.D., M.P.H., Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and lead researcher on the colon cancer prevention study. "We have observed that some of the same biological processes that cause inflammation may also be involved in developing cancer, so the next step was to see if drugs that prevent inflammation also serve to lessen the risk of cancer." View Related  Doctors at Mayo Clinic have a new weapon in the fight against liver cancer. It's a type of radiation that directly targets the tumor without typical side effects. Medical Edge Television Read Script  More than 200 clinicians and researchers attended the 2nd Mayo Clinic Angiogenesis Symposium, Oct. 27-29, 2006. Angiogenesis is the specific growth of new blood vessels to accommodate tumor growth and the spread of many cancers. View Related Mayo Awarded $72 Million for Clinical and Translational Research "The Mayo Clinic Center for Clinical and Translational Research will coordinate the efforts of our outstanding clinical research education and training programs, our world-class scientists and clinical research investigators, and the vast resources of Mayo Clinic to speed the process of turning our research discoveries into the medications and treatments our patients need and expect," says Robert Rizza, M.D., Mayo Clinic's director for research and the director of the new center. View Related  The Clinical Research Training Program provides a formal education in all aspects of clinical research, including grant-writing, legal and ethical issues, statistics, epidemiology and study design and protocols. "I realized how exciting research can be, and how exciting it is to advance the science." Jon Ebbert, M.D. View Related  If you have kidney cancer, you might not get symptoms until it's rather advanced. Not long ago a diagnosis like that was bad news. But now, thanks to technology, teamwork and medical expertise, people are beating this deadly disease. Medical Edge Television Read Script  Pill camera a breakthrough in non-invasive diagnosis of digestive disorders Called video capsule endoscopy, Mayo Clinic in Arizona was one of only three centers in the U.S. to begin doing the procedure in 2001, very shortly after it was approved by the FDA. View Related   Medical Edge Newspaper DEAR MAYO CLINIC: Is there any connection between esophageal cancer and diet soda? View Related   Medical Edge Newspaper DEAR MAYO CLINIC: A friend of mine recently had a colonoscopy. His doctor found, and zapped, 12 polyps in his colon -- all of them small and, as it turned out, benign. An earlier procedure, done six years ago, found none. What could explain the big change and what, if anything, should he do to prevent any further polyp formation, which can be a precursor to colon cancer? View Related  "This collaboration will enable us to work with the Indian Health Service to address health care-related needs specific to Native Americans, ranging from developing research initiatives to address unique problems, to finding ways to improve access to medi View Related  Publication: Cancer -- July 1, 2006 Mononuclear cell infiltration is associated with death from renal cell carcinoma even after multivariate adjustment. Routine documentation of mononuclear cell infiltration is recommended during the pathologic assessment of renal cell carcinoma. View Related  Medical Edge Television Occasional heartburn is usually nothing to worry about. But if heartburn hits two or more times a week, you may be at risk of developing a condition called Barrett's esophagus that increases your risk of cancer. Read Script  Mayo Clinic researchers have shown that the molecule B7-H4 helps renal cell carcinoma (RCC) grow and spread by blocking the immune system. The findings may one day help physicians predict patient outcome and direct treatment, as well as serve as a target at which to aim new and better therapies for this most lethal urologic malignancy. View Abstract In helping young investigators, Mayo Clinic again is connecting all the dots -- leading back to the same point, the same mission, ongoing and yet unchanged for over a century: the needs of the patient come first. New, young investigators are critical to biomedical research. Their fresh ideas, innovativeness, and enthusiasm are necessary for scientific progress. Yet the steps from a junior research position toward a self-sufficient laboratory can be difficult. Mayo Clinic is dedicated to fostering future, investigators. Here we look at two of them and what Mayo is doing to help. View Related Researchers Find Biomarker May Indicate Probable Response to Therapy for Ovarian and Gastric Cancers "In this study we've been able to identify a protein whose expression was associated with the effectiveness of cisplatin and paclitaxel for ovarian and gastric cancer treatment." Mayo Clinic researchers, in collaboration with several international teams, report that individuals respond better to cisplatin and paclitaxel chemotherapy treatments for ovarian or gastric cancer, specifically stomach cancer, when they have higher levels of the HtrA1 protein -- indicating a potential clinical use of this biomarker to predict treatment response. View Abstract  Medical Edge Newspaper DEAR MAYO CLINIC: One of my parents died of colon cancer and I know that I should get a colonoscopy. The problem is that I can't fast for 24 hours because of other health problems. Are there any other screening options I could pursue? -- Fort Wayne, Ind. View Related  Robert B. Diasio, M.D., has been appointed Mayo Clinic Cancer Center Director, succeeding Franklyn Prendergast, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Diasio, who will be based at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, will also direct cancer center activities at Mayo Clinic in Arizona and Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. View Related State and regional cancer survivors, their families and friends will come together to celebrate life during the upcoming 19th annual National Cancer Survivors Day Celebration, Sunday, June 4, 2006. "This celebration of life is for everyone," says Janine Kokal, Mayo Clinic nurse educator and local planning committee chair. "Whether you're a cancer survivor, a family member, a friend or a medical professional, National Cancer Survivors Day provides an opportunity for cancer survivors to connect with other survivors, and reunite with medical staff and families they've met along the way." View Related  The study also found that in one-half of the diabetic patients, their new-onset diabetes predated clinical diagnosis of cancer by more than six months, giving researchers one more clue for earlier detection of pancreatic cancer. "Past studies have shown an association between recent diagnoses of diabetes and pancreatic cancer," says Suresh Chari, M.D., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and lead author of this study. "Our goal with this study was to establish a timeline for the progression of pancreatic cancer, especially in relation to the development of new-onset diabetes." View Related  "Once Barrett's esophagus is diagnosed, patients have a 30- to 125-fold increased risk of developing esophageal cancer." View Related  Medical Edge Newspaper First, a cancer diagnosis. Then, worries about possible side effects from the treatment -- the nausea and vomiting you've heard about from others who have been treated for cancer. This article explores some of the options available for dealing with the side effects of treatment. View Related The first radiation therapy and respiratory care baccalaureate classes of Mayo School of Health Sciences and the University of Minnesota will be conferred on Friday, May 12, 2006, at Mayo Clinic. View Related   The invention of a novel imaging biotechnology called vibro-acoustography was reported in 1998, a fruit that matured from a mind dedicated to a deeper understanding of the mathematical and physical concepts that produce clear images of internal anatomy. James Greenleaf, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic scientist and director of the Ultrasound Research Laboratory, is praised by the scientific community as one of the most creative scientists in ultrasonic biomedical imaging science. This article explores his contributions—novel ultrasound treatments, and biotechnology that produces clear images, some in 3D, of tiny structures deep within the body. View Related Now that this signal has been identified, new strategies can be generated for enhancing the ability of the immune system to kill tumor cells in patients with cancer. "Because NK cells can communicate different messages -- one that serves health by clearing tumors and viruses and one that serves disease by blocking the response to cancer -- understanding which signals result in effective tumor clearance is a high priority for those of us fighting cancer," explains Paul Leibson, M.D., Ph.D., the Mayo Clinic immunologist and pediatrician who led the study. View Abstract  Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered clues about new molecular partnerships involving a key protein that naturally guards against cancer because it promotes repair of damaged DNA. Research shows that loss of p53 is directly related to cancer. People born without enough p53 function get spontaneous cancers. In about half of all cancers, the two genes that give the instructions for making p53 (each person gets one gene from each parent) are missing or shut off. This suggests that loss of p53 function is a common event in the origin of many different kinds of cancer. Therefore, an appealing research strategy is to devise ways to restore or protect p53 function. Discovering all the ways p53 gets turned on is an important first step toward doing that. View Abstract Mayo Clinic researchers have uncovered a new cellular secret that may explain how certain cancers move and spread -- a feature of cancers that makes treatment especially difficult. "These findings have broad implications toward the general understanding of how specific processes in the wave may affect such things as cell growth, cell movement and metastasis," explains Mark McNiven, Ph.D., the lead researcher on the Mayo Clinic team. "Our work provides new insights into a novel mechanism by which cells can internalize growth factor information. Understanding this process is the first step toward one day halting it, preventing it or reversing it therapeutically." View Related  Mayo Clinic broke ground this morning for a new building to house advanced imaging research. Mayo received a gift of $7 million from The Opus Group to support construction of the facility. "Much of medicine in the future will depend heavily on noninvasive imaging techniques," says Denis Cortese, M.D., CEO of Mayo Clinic. "We are grateful for this generous gift from Opus, which will help us expand both our diagnostic and treatment capabilities through the findings of this research. Applying basic science research findings to patient care is what we do best, and we look for this activity to keep Mayo Clinic on the cutting edge of imaging." View Related  Renal cell carcinoma is one of most dangerous forms of kidney cancer. An interdisciplinary team of Mayo Clinic investigators and Mayo's Comprehensive Cancer Center are pursuing improved treatments by pooling data and expertise with support from Florida. "With this approach, we can halt the disease and begin to cure kidney cancer." John Copland, M.D. View Related In terms of a medical diagnosis, nothing is more devastating than hearing the "C" word - cancer. But now, ASU and Mayo Clinic are hoping that five different C's will become the best arsenal against the big C. The organizations have teamed up to introduce a new research entity called MAC5. MAC5 is short for the Mayo Clinic - ASU Center for Cancer-related Convergence, Cooperation and Collaboration. View Related  City of Rochester employees have a chance to participate in one of the first efforts in the state to further the goals of the Minnesota Cancer Plan, published in 2005. "Colorectal cancer is preventable if people get screened and have appropriate follow-up," says Paul Limburg, M.D., M.P.H., Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and lead investigator of the study. "We hope to build an education and prevention model here in Rochester that will be useful for communities throughout the state and beyond." View Related  "Most patients who get invasive esophagus cancer will die. Its one of the more lethal cancers," says Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist Dr. Herbert Wolfsen. "But in its precancerous phase, or the high-grade dysplasia phase, it's highly treatable." Barrett's esophagus is a premalignant condition that leads to esophageal cancer in some people. The new minimally invasive treatment is an outpatient procedure that takes about 30 minutes. View Related  Publication: Journal of Clinical Oncology -- Dec. 20, 2005 A North Central Cancer Treatment Group Phase II study View Related  Publication: Journal of Clinical Oncology -- Dec. 1, 2005 Individual patient data from 20,898 patients on 18 randomized trials: North Central Cancer Treatment Group View Related   Gemcitabine and ISIS-2503 for patients with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma Publication: Journal of Clinical Oncology -- Dec. 15, 2004 North Central Cancer Treatment Group clinical trial View Related  Publication: Journal of Clinical Oncology -- Aug. 15, 2004 North Central Cancer Treatment Group -- intergroup clinical trial View Related   Publication: Journal of Clinical Oncology -- June 15, 2004 North Central Cancer Treatment Group with National Cancer Institute of Canada View Related  Publication: Journal of Clinical Oncology -- May 15, 2004 North Central Cancer Treatment Group pooled results with US Gastrointestinal Intergroup and the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project View Related  Publication: Journal of Clinical Oncology -- May 1, 2004 North Central Cancer Treatment Group study View Related  |
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