Colorectal cancer, the second most common cause of death from cancer in the United States, is associated with an abnormally high rate of increase in the number of cells lining the colon (colonic hyperproliferation). In mice, overexpression of the human protein progastrin has been shown to cause colonic hyperproliferation and promote colorectal cancer, but the molecular mechanisms underlying this have remained undetermined.

The University of Illinois at Chicago has been awarded a $7.2 million federal grant to establish the UIC Center of Excellence in Eliminating Health Disparities.

Heavy drinkers of beer and spirits face a much higher risk of developing cancer than the population at large, says a group of Montreal epidemiologists and cancer researchers. Their findings show that people in the highest consumption category increased their risk of developing oesophageal cancer sevenfold, colon cancer by 80% and even lung cancer by 50%.

ARUP Laboratories, a national clinical and anatomic pathology reference laboratory and a leader in innovative laboratory research and development, supports the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision to put KRAS on the label of two targeted drugs, Vectibix (panitumumab) and Erbitux (cetuximab).

The Latino/a population in the United States is expected to triple by 2050, according to projections from the U.S. Census Bureau. And along with that growth, says University of Illinois professor Lydia Buki, will come a rise in the number of individuals from that population who are diagnosed with cancer. In particular, based on current statistics, Buki expects that diagnoses of breast and cervical cancers among Latinas will increase significantly.

Capsule endoscopy for exploring the colon in a minimally invasive manner diagnoses 64% of all lesions located by means of conventional colonoscopy.

For the 29,000 patients in the United States with metastatic colorectal cancer, chemotherapy with irinotecan is a standard treatment that has been shown to improve survival. But for more than one in 10 of these patients, a variation in their DNA means that this treatment could result in a severe reduction in their white blood cell count, leading to a high risk of bacterial infection and possible subsequent death.

Roche announced results from the international phase III study NO16968 (XELOXA), investigating oral Xeloda in combination with intravenous oxaliplatin (XELOX) immediately after surgery, which show that patients with colon cancer taking XELOX live disease free for longer compared to those taking the commonly used intravenous chemotherapy combination 5-fluorouracil/leucovorin (5-FU/LV).

Surgically removing and evaluating an increasing number of lymph nodes does not appear to identify a greater number of patients with stage III colorectal cancer, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer and the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States, according to background information in the article.

ImClone Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY), and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved revisions to the U.S. prescribing information for ERBITUX® (cetuximab) concerning the treatment of patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-expressing metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).