Dr. S. Vincent Rajkumar, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, illuminates the results an article appearing in the June 2012 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings of an Olmsted County population- based study where detection of high polyclonal free light chain levels can predict mortality outcomes across multiple conditions. Available at:
http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(12)00388-6 /fulltext

Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) differs from traditional radiation therapy for cancer patients. Treatment takes less time (four days versus seven weeks), it’s double the radiation dose and it spares the healthy tissue surrounding the tumor. SBRT is commonly used to treat lung and pancreatic cancers, as well as cancers that have spread to the liver, lung, adrenal glands and spine. Joe Chang, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in Radiation Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center,...

With few early symptoms, ovarian cancer — like many cancers — can be hard to detect without invasive and expensive procedures. "Early detection is absolutely not only key but probably the only way for us to win the war on cancer," says Vadim Backman who is a biomedical engineer at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. With support from the National Science Foundation, in part funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), Backman's research is shedding...

Download podcast from iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/benefits-dangers-vitamin-supplements... Many people think taking lots of vitamin supplements can help reduce their risk of cancer. Richard Tsong Lee, M.D., Medical Director of the Integrative Medicine Program, and Laura Michaud, Manager Clinical Pharmacy Services, explain how the opposite may actually be true -- in some cases taking too many vitamin supplements may have harmful effects.

Researchers have crafted a gene circuit that permits precise tuning of a gene's expression in a cell, an advance that should allow for more accurate analysis of the gene's role in normal and abnormal cellular function. This gene "dosing effect" is achieved by installing a negative feedback loop in the synthetic gene circuit, a concept similar to signal distortion control in electronics, a team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports this week in the...

Background: The Family Smoking Prevention and Control Act gave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) legal authority to mandate graphic warning labels on cigarette advertising and packaging. The FDA requires that these graphic warning labels be embedded into cigarette advertising and packaging by September 2012. Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine differences in recall and viewing patterns of text-only versus graphic cigarette warning labels and the association between...