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Patients with prostate cancer who receive high-dose radiation treatment and also take statin drugs commonly used to lower cholesterol have a 10 percent higher chance of being cured of their cancer at 10 years after diagnosis (76 percent), compared to those who don t take these medications (66 percent), according to a study presented at a scientific session October 31, 2007, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology s 49th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.

Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute researchers have found that highly targeted radiation therapy for prostate cancer can ensure that the majority of persons with this tumor will not have any long-term rectal damage. A group of 231 study participants received a combination of intensity-modulated radiation and seed marker-based image-guided radiation therapies (IM-IGRT) for prostate cancer then were tracked for 1.4 years.

Exercise may reduce, and even reverse, bone loss caused by hormone and radiation therapies used in the treatment of localized prostate cancer, thereby decreasing the potential risk of bone fractures and improving quality of life for these men, according to a study presented on October 28, 2007, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology s 49th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. "Prostate cancer patients are not routinely advised to exercise.

Cancer researchers have long worked to understand why some prostate cancers recur after the use of therapies designed to stop the production of testosterone and other androgens that fuel cancer cell growth. New research has now detected that androgen-synthesizing proteins are present within cancer cells, which suggests that cancer cells may develop the capacity to produce their own androgens.

Radiation seed implants (brachytherapy) are just as effective at curing prostate cancer in younger men (aged 60 and younger) as they are in older men, according to a study presented at a scientific session on October 31, 2007, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology s 49th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.

The use of androgen deprivation therapy to treat localized prostate cancer is associated with an increased risk of death from heart disease, according to a study published online October 9 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Androgen deprivation therapy is frequently used to treat high-risk localized prostate cancer. Studies have shown that androgen deprivation therapy, when used with external beam radiation therapy, improves survival in patients with advanced and localized prostate cancer.

Two tiny genetic variations may provide the best clues yet for finding more precise ways to estimate prostate cancer risk and improve screening and early detection for men of African descent, report researchers from the University of Chicago and the Translational Genomics Research Institute, Phoenix, AZ, in the December 2007 issue of Genome Research, published early online.

Researchers at UCLA s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered a novel mechanism to predict survival in older women with early stage lung cancer. The finding may have significant implications for new treatment approaches. For the first time, UCLA researchers linked higher levels of aromatase, an enzyme that naturally makes estrogen from another hormone called androgen, to more aggressive disease and lower survival rates in women over 65 with Stage 1 or 2 lung cancer.

Scientists have identified the transcription factor DMP1 as a pivotal tumor suppressor for both human and mouse lung cancers, especially in carcinomas that exhibit intact Arf-p53 pathways. The research, published by Cell Press in the October 2007 issue of Cancer Cell, may lead to development of new drug therapies for lung cancer. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the world, responsible for 1.3 million deaths each year.