Obesity remains an epidemic in the US as well as worldwide. Little has been studied and understood about the epigenetic basis of obesity in adolescents. There has been found an association between the level of DNA methylation in obesity-related genes and BMI percentile. In the last decade, a novel mechanism of epigenetic regulation of gene expression has been studied. Although there is increased awareness of lifestyle and environmental factors associated with obesity, there remain major gaps that exist in understanding the contribution of epigenetics.

Stem cell therapy is the future of regenerative medicine, but will stem cell therapy also define the future of healthcare in the United States? In this article, we will explore the benefits of stem cell therapy along with the impact this regenerative revolution will have on healthcare.

Metastatic renal cell carcinomas still are the most lethal in the US. In 2015 alone there were 14,080 deaths attributed to it. Removal of the involved kidney continues to be the mainstay treatment for localized disease. Even with all our advancements in treatment, it continues to have a poor prognosis. Chemotherapy is considered a standard therapy for patients with some renal cell variants. The role in treating clear cell renal cell carcinoma is poorly defined. What exactly causes this resistance is currently undefined. Ideally, doctors should be able to characterize tumors according to DNA. In reality, this method has been largely limited by varying gene expression signatures. For years development of treatment has been largely unsuccessful. Better understanding disease biology and treatment resistance patterns have led to emerging therapies with a better understanding in pathogensis and mechanisms of treatment resistance there are hope treatments will continue to expand (Tsao et al, 2017).

It is estimated that there are over 338,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer worldwide. in 2012, 331,000 people died from pancreatic cancer. Because the therapies for other cancers have been showing more advancement the researchers feel that pancreatic cancer is liable to become the second leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, to survive more than a year is only slightly improved due to use of systemic chemotherapy and the combining use of other chemotherapies already available. This trial that adjuvant therapy using gemcitabine is the standard of care based on similar survival to and less toxicity than paired with 5-fluorouracil/folinic acid in patients with resected pancreatic cancer (meaning they have had all or part of the tumor removed surgically). In addition, other trials have shown better survival and tumor response with gemcitabine and capecitabine as opposed to gemcitabine used alone in advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer. The outcome of the study found promise with the use of gemcitabine and capecitabine resulting in an increase in survival times to between two and five years without relapse (Neoptolemos et al, 2017)

Cancer is a tragic plague that wracks our world with suffering. Most Americans have been impacted by this horrific disease in a personal or professional way. Hodgkin Lymphoma is a blood cancer that invades the lives of thousands every year, but the tragic fact about this type of cancer is that it usually targets young adults. Hodgkin Lymphoma is not in the spotlight often due in part to its rarity and the fact that treatment for newly diagnosed patients didn’t change for over 40 years. Fortunately, Adcetris offers new hope for Hodgkin Lymphoma treatment.

We hear a lot about skin cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, and even pancreatic cancer, but oral cancer? Not so much. The Oral Cancer Foundation estimated that nearly 50,000 Americans would be diagnosed with oral cancer in 2017. Oral cancer has a significant mortality rate, as slightly more than half of the people diagnosed with the disease will be alive in five years.

A woman’s chance of developing breast cancer during her lifetime is about 1 in 8. In men, the chance is 1 in 1,000. That’s a big difference, so big, in fact, that many people don’t even realize that men can have breast cancer and that they can die from it just like women can.

As part of her dissertation, Cornelia Rosschger from Salzburg has designed a molecule to be used in the fight against cancer. The molecule causes cancer cells to not divide so quickly. The helical molecule is a representation of a small element of the Id proteins, but is not an exact copy. It has the ability to recognize and capture Id proteins, thus weakening their biological function in the cancer cell.

According to a study carried out on mice published today in the British publication NatureAn, an international team of researchers has programmed nanorobots to search for, and destroy tumors by cutting off their blood supply. The entire process occurs within 24 hours and impressive results were observed in a melanoma mouse model.

New animal research published in the journal, Nature, suggests that food can either fuel or inhibit the spread of cancer. This is due to the amino acid composition of foods because certain cancers appear to thrive on specific amino acids.

I don't know if it's the alcohol itself or the extra ingredients that go in today's alcohol drinks, but the World Health Organization (WHO) today announced that drinking alcohol can increase the risk of at least 7 types of cancer and limiting alcohol intake is one way to reduce your cancer risk. Apparently it's the ethanol in alcoholic drinks.

Maintaining a healthy diet, exercising regularly and avoiding smoking, makes it possible to prevent up to a third of the most common cancers, says On World Day Against Cancer, The Ministry of Health recalls preventive measures Doctor Fernando Arenillas from the Oncology Service of the San Martin de Parana Hospital in Argentina.

Medical science says that invasive procedures such as biopsies and early screenings are the answer to cancer progression, but this is not prevention. While there are many types of cancer screening tests, cancer prevention may be possible years ahead of its development with one simple blood test.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s famous quote: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” is proving to be true beyond the Great Depression to the modern world today. The New England Journal of Medicine released a study in April of 2012 called “Suicide and Cardiovascular Death After a Cancer Diagnosis”. The study’s results were a saddening testimony to the fact that fear can be fatal.

I ran across this statistic for the first time a few days ago and found it quite puzzling. Why would such a large percentage of doctors refuse a treatment that they would recommend to others?