Biogen, Genentech to codevelop cancer drug

piggy submitted, created time 2 weeks 6 days (finance.yahoo.com)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- Biogen Idec Inc. said Thursday it will pay Genentech Inc. $31.5 million upfront under a deal to co-develop a potential cancer treatment.

The companies will develop GA101, now in early-to-midstage studies as a possible treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Both conditions are blood cancers.

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Blocking enzyme could help in rare blood cancer

jerry submitted, created time 2 months 2 days (www.reuters.com)

An enzyme that fights some kinds of cancers may foster the growth of a rare type of leukemia that affects babies, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday in a finding that may lead to new drugs for the hard-to-treat disease. There is also talk of applications in Alzheimer's and diabetes.

The enzyme is called glycogen synthase kinase, or GSK3, and blocking it might be an effective way to treat this type of leukemia--for which chemotherapy is characteristically ineffective. Existing drugs used for bipolar disease seem to do a shaky but effective job.

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More advanced cancer seen in uninsured Americans

DanyC submitted, created time 9 months 4 days (www.reuters.com)

Uninsured Americans and those in a government health program for the poor are far more likely to have advanced diseases when diagnosed with cancer than those with private coverage, researchers said on Sunday.
The study published in the medical journal Lancet Oncology also showed blacks and to a lesser extent Hispanics, regardless of insurance status, were more likely than whites to have advanced cancer when first diagnosed.

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New Task: Malaria drug might inhibit some cancers

Sue Wu submitted, created time 10 months 2 weeks (www.sciencenews.org)

In the 1970s and 1980s, researchers in Tanzania distributed millions of doses of chloroquine to children as part of a 5-year malaria-prevention project. While the study yielded only mixed results against that disease, the researchers noticed a striking drop in cases of Burkitt's lymphoma, a blood cancer.

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News tips from the Journal of Biological Chemistry

Cindy submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.eurekalert.org)

Cholesterol Metabolism Without Oxygen; Compound Effective against Blood Cancer Reveals Its Secrets; Fighting Bacteria by Preventing Them from Talking to Each Other; New Insight into HIV Infection. Here are New tips from the Journal of Biological Chemistry

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Short chromosomes put cancer cells in forced rest

fiona submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.biologynews.net)

"A Johns Hopkins team has stopped in its tracks a form of blood cancer in mice by engineering and inactivating an enzyme, telomerase, thereby shortening the ends of chromosomes, called telomeres."

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