A rare but hard-to-treat form of breast cancer is driven by a newly discovered gene, researchers have found.

ZNF703 is the first oncogene to be discovered in five years, and it could lead to more effective treatments down the road, Cancer Research UK said.

Oncogenes tell healthy cells to divide when needed. But in tumours, they are overactive and the cancer multiply unstoppably. The oncogene act like a stuck accelerator that leads a car to speed out of control.

In Friday’s online issue of the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, scientists from Cancer Research UK’s Cambridge Research Institute and the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Vancouver said evidence strongly suggests ZNF703 is a new oncogene.

To come to that conclusion, they tested gene activity in 1,172 breast tumour samples that were estrogen receptor-positive.

Testing whether the gene is overactive in a tumour could help highlight those more likely to resist standard treatments, said the study’s senior author, Prof. Carlos Caldas, of the Cambridge Research Institute.
ZNF703 is overactive in around one in 12 breast cancers, Caldas noted.

The oncogene acts in the opposite way to better known cancer genes like BRCA1 and 2 that are tumour suppressor genes.

Tumour suppressor genes act like brakes to prevent a cell from multiplying out of control. But when these genes are missing, it is as if a car’s brakes were cut.

Men diagnosed with prostate cancer may be able to reduce their risk of death not just from prostate cancer but from any cause by exercising vigorously for at least three hours per week, new research indicates.

A study performed by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of California-San Francisco examined the records of 2,705 men who had been diagnosed with nonmetastatic prostate cancer over an 18-year period in a project known as the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. The men in the study reported the time they spent exercising on a weekly basis. This included running, bicycling, walking, swimming, other sports, and even outdoor work.

Non-vigorous and vigorous activity proved beneficial for overall survival, the study says.

Men who walked less than 90 minutes per week at a normal to brisk pace had a 46% lower risk of dying from any cause compared to men who walked less than 90 minutes per week.

Men who reported vigorous activity for at least three hours per week had a 61% lower risk of a prostate cancer-specific death, compared with men who exercised for less than an hour per week.

“Our results suggest that men can reduce their risk of prostate cancer progression after a diagnosis of prostate cancer by adding physical activity to their daily routine,” study author Stacey Kenfield of Harvard says in a news release. “This is good news for men living with prostate cancer who wonder what lifestyle practices to follow to improve cancer survival.”

Some Exercise Better Than No Exercise
She says the researchers “observed benefits at very attainable levels of activity” and that the study suggests that men with prostate cancer “should do some physical activity for their overall health, even if it is a small amount, such as 15 minutes of activity per day of walking, jogging, biking, or gardening.”

She says, however, that “doing vigorous activity for three or more hours per week may be especially beneficial for prostate cancer, as well as overall health.”

The results are significant because prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men in the United States. Although more than 80% of prostate cancer patients are diagnosed with localized disease, the relative 10-year survival rate is 93% for all stages combined.

More than 2 million men in the U.S. are prostate cancer survivors.

“We observed a significant risk reduction for prostate cancer mortality with increasing vigorous activity,” the authors write.

They say more research is needed to determine which exercise regimens are best for men with prostate cancer.

Michigan and Connecticut are the latest two states which reported their first deaths on Wednesday.

The Michigan Department of Community Health has confirmed that the state’s first death of A/H1N1 flu involved a 53-year-old woman, who died on Tuesday in a hospital in Macomb County after being sick for more than two weeks.

“This is sad and unfortunate. But, at the same time, we do expect a number of deaths (nationally) following the infection from this virus,” James McCurtis, a spokesman for the department, said on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday, Michigan reported 298 confirmed cases of A/H1N1 flu statewide, comparing to 287 cases released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on its website.

Meanwhile, the Connecticut Department of Public Health on Wednesday announced that a resident aged over 50 has become the first person in the state to die from the A/H1N1 flu.

Confirmed cases of the A/H1N1 flu in the state has jumped to 397, almost double the figure of 197 released by the CDC on its website, the department said.

Officials said the actual number might be much higher because many people with mild symptoms do not go to a doctor or hospital.

New York and Illinois are the two states which reported on Wednesday more deaths from the A/H1N1 flu virus. The New York health department said that two more New Yorkers have been killed by the virus, bringing the state’s death toll to seven.

In Chicago, Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold declared that a 22-year-old Chicago woman has died from complications of the A/H1N1 flu one day after she gave birth, bringing the number of Illinois deaths related to the virus to four.

The state health department has reported 1,268 confirmed cases of the A/H1N1 flu statewide, comparing to 1,151 cases released by the CDC on its website on Wednesday.

Nationwide, the CDC has reported 17 deaths from the A/H1N1 virus in seven states, not including four deaths reported by local health officials on Tuesday — the first two deaths in California, the first death in Virginia and the fifth death in New York.

On Wednesday, the CDC also reported 11,054 confirmed cases of the A/H1N1 flu in all 51 states.

The agency anticipates more cases, hospitalizations and deaths associated with this new virus in the coming days and weeks.

BiPar’s BSI-201 has emerged as one of the most promising new products at this year’s ASCO cancer conference in Orlando, Florida, with positive mid-stage trial results helping lift Sanofi shares by more than 3 percent on Monday.

But there is a fly in the ointment. A Sanofi spokesman said on Monday that the main U.S. composition patent on the medicine was valid only until 2013, though this could be extended by five years.

In Europe, the patent runs to 2014 and Sanofi will have 10 years data exclusivity after approval.

“These facts probably explain the relatively modest agreed price for the BiPar deal,” analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a research note.

They estimate BSI-201 could sell between $1 billion and $4 billion a year to Sanofi’s 2016 revenues, with a U.S. launch as possible by late 2010.

On the face of it, that makes the price Sanofi’s new chief executive, Chris Viehbacher, paid for BiPar seem a bargain. The problem is the medicine could face generic competition in the world’s biggest pharmaceuticals market from 2018.

BSI-201 belongs to a new class of drugs that block a cell repair enzyme known as PARP.

It impressed doctors at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) on Sunday by improving survival by 60 percent compared with chemotherapy alone for women with tough-to-treat “triple negative breast cancer.”

Patients with triple negative metastatic breast cancer have tumors that do not express the hormones oestrogen or progesterone, as well as the protein HER-2.

These women, who account for 15 to 20 percent of breast cancer patients, have a very aggressive form of disease and there are currently no treatments other than chemotherapy.

Citigroup analyst Mark Dainty said the data for BSI-201 was significantly better than the results with Roche’s Avastin in triple negative patients and the new drug could put 20 to 25 percent of Avastin sales forecasts at risk.

Citi currently forecasts 2011 Avastin breast cancer sales at 1.7 billion Swiss francs ($1.6 billion) and losing 20 percent of this would slice some 2 percent off Roche’s 2011 earnings per shares.

AstraZeneca also has an experimental PARP inhibitor called olaparib that is further behind in development.

Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles, or they have been exposed to asbestos dust and fiber in other ways. Washing the clothes of a family member who worked with asbestos can also put a person at risk for developing mesothelioma.[2] Unlike lung cancer, there is no association between mesothelioma and smoking, but smoking greatly increases risk of other asbestos-induced cancer.[3] Compensation via asbestos funds or lawsuits is an important issue in mesothelioma (see asbestos and the law).

The symptoms of mesothelioma include shortness of breath due to pleural effusion (fluid between the lung and the chest wall) or chest wall pain, and general symptoms such as weight loss. The diagnosis may be suspected with chest X-ray and CT scan, and is confirmed with a biopsy (tissue sample) and microscopic examination. A thoracoscopy (inserting a tube with a camera into the chest) can be used to take biopsies. It allows the introduction of substances such as talc to obliterate the pleural space (called pleurodesis), which prevents more fluid from accumulating and pressing on the lung. Despite treatment with chemotherapy, radiation therapy or sometimes surgery, the disease carries a poor prognosis. Research about screening tests for the early detection of mesothelioma is ongoing.

Signs and symptoms
Symptoms of mesothelioma may not appear until 20 to 50 years after exposure to asbestos. Shortness of breath, cough, and pain in the chest due to an accumulation of fluid in the pleural space are often symptoms of pleural mesothelioma.

Symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma include weight loss and cachexia, abdominal swelling and pain due to ascites (a buildup of fluid in the abdominal cavity). Other symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma may include bowel obstruction, blood clotting abnormalities, anemia, and fever. If the cancer has spread beyond the mesothelium to other parts of the body, symptoms may include pain, trouble swallowing, or swelling of the neck or face.

These symptoms may be caused by mesothelioma or by other, less serious conditions.

Mesothelioma that affects the pleura can cause these signs and symptoms:

chest wall pain
pleural effusion, or fluid surrounding the lung
shortness of breath
fatigue or anemia
wheezing, hoarseness, or cough
blood in the sputum (fluid) coughed up (hemoptysis)
In severe cases, the person may have many tumor masses. The individual may develop a pneumothorax, or collapse of the lung. The disease may metastasize, or spread, to other parts of the body.

Tumors that affect the abdominal cavity often do not cause symptoms until they are at a late stage. Symptoms include:

abdominal pain
ascites, or an abnormal buildup of fluid in the abdomen
a mass in the abdomen
problems with bowel function
weight loss
In severe cases of the disease, the following signs and symptoms may be present:

blood clots in the veins, which may cause thrombophlebitis
disseminated intravascular coagulation, a disorder causing severe bleeding in many body organs
jaundice, or yellowing of the eyes and skin
low blood sugar level
pleural effusion
pulmonary emboli, or blood clots in the arteries of the lungs
severe ascites
A mesothelioma does not usually spread to the bone, brain, or adrenal glands. Pleural tumors are usually found only on one side of the lungs.