Appendix cancer was once a medical oddity that most people never heard about. Today, reports are stacking up in younger adults, and doctors are trying to make sense of it.

This cancer starts in the small pouch off the large intestine, and it often hides until surgery for suspected appendicitis.

These cancers vary in their biology – from appendiceal adenocarcinoma, which begins in the gland cells lining the appendix, to neuroendocrine tumors that arise from hormone-producing cells in the digestive tract. Yet they share a troubling trend: the number of cases is steadily climbing. Continue reading →

A new study reports nanoparticles that send messenger RNA, genetic instructions that tell cells to make proteins, directly to the pancreas with 99 percent selectivity. The tests used an intravenous shot in mice.

The work was led by Chandrabali Bhattacharya at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). It points to a way to treat diabetes and pancreatic cancer with fewer off target hits. The team built lipid nanoparticles, tiny fat based carriers for genetic cargo, and revised their recipe to steer them.

“Until today, there has been no material that can be injected intravenously that automatically goes to the pancreas with 99% selectivity, an organ previously inaccessible to intravenous treatment. This discovery is a first,” said Bhattacharya. Continue reading →

These MRI images were taken during and after three treatment attempts in two patients. The leftmost column shows the brain just after opening the barrier, the middle column was taken two days later, and the rightmost column was taken four days after the procedure. CHENG-CHIA WU, LUCA SZALONTAY, ET AL./AAAS

One of the deadliest childhood brain tumors known to medicine now has a new vulnerability, due to an experimental device that uses ultrasound to briefly unlock the brain’s protective barrier and let in anti-cancer drugs.

In a small clinical trial in New York, pediatric oncologists harnessed the technology to temporarily – but repeatedly – open the blood-brain barrier in three children with a rare type of brain cancer called diffuse midline glioma. Two of the patients responded favorably to the treatment and experienced temporary disease stabilization. All of the children, as is typical with this aggressive disease, died within a year of initiating treatment. Continue reading →

Scientists have discovered more than 140 medications that alter the gut microbiome, forcing bacteria to compete for nutrients, a phenomenon known to cause an intestinal imbalance and prompt cancer-promoting inflammation.

Stanford University researchers focused on common medications that impact the vast array of microbes in the gut, with potentially far-reaching consequences for metabolism, immune system response and overall health.

They found that potentially deadly changes in the gut result from certain medications killing off populations of bacteria and changing the availability of nutrients. Continue reading →