A review of more than 200 studies reveals that olfactory receptors--proteins that bind to odors that aid the sense of smell--perform a wide range of mostly unknown functions outside the nose. The function of extra-nasal olfactory receptors has the potential to be used in the diagnosis and treatment of health conditions such as cancer. The article is published in the July issue of Physiological Reviews.

Olfactory, or smell, receptors were originally thought to be only in the sensory nerve cells (neurons) of nasal cavity tissues. However, more recent and extensive study suggests that the receptors "occur in nearly the entire human body, [and] they appear to be substantially more functionally important than previously suggested," researchers from Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany wrote. In addition to the receptors playing a major role in the sense of smell, "several essential physiological and pathophysiological processes have been described as targeted by human [olfactory receptors], including path finding, cell growth, [cell death], migration and secretion."

The research team summarized the location and purpose of certain types of olfactory receptors, including those that may be beneficial to general health:

• Receptors present in heart muscle cells may be a metabolic regulator of heart function.
• Receptors activated in the immune system have been seen to promote the death of certain types of leukemia cells.
• Smell receptors in the liver reduce the spread of liver cancer cells.
• Receptors in the skin increase the regeneration of skin cells and help speed wound healing.

Many cancer patients suffer from a loss of body mass known as cachexia. Approximately 20 percent of cancer related deaths are attributed to the syndrome of cachexia, which in cancer patients is often characterized by a rapid or severe loss of fat and skeletal muscle. Dr. Melinda Sheffield-Moore, professor and head of the Department of Health and Kinesiology, along with researchers at University of Texas Medical Branch, recently published research in the Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle showing that the hormone testosterone is effective at combatting cachexia in cancer patients and improving quality of life.

These findings are important, as there are currently no established therapies targeting this loss of skeletal muscle, and without an intervention, patients lose muscle function and become fatigued and weakened.
"We hoped to demonstrate these patients would go from not feeling well enough to even get out of bed to at least being able to have some basic quality of life that allows them to take care of themselves and receive therapy," Dr. Sheffield-Moore said.

Dr. Sheffield-Moore said doctors sought her expertise in nutrition and metabolism when patients were losing tremendous amounts of weight from cancer cachexia. She said that previous nutrition-focused treatment failed to combat this severe loss of body mass, which led her team to investigate the hormone testosterone as an option to combat the often debilitating consequences of cancer cachexia.
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"We already know that testosterone builds skeletal muscle in healthy individuals, so we tried using it in a population at a high risk of muscle loss, so these patients could maintain their strength and performance status to be able to receive standard cancer therapies." Dr. Sheffield-Moore said.

Giving radiation therapy to the lymph nodes located behind the breast bone and above the collar bone to patients with early stage breast cancer improves overall survival without increasing side effects, and this effect continues for 15 years, researchers have found. Professor Philip Poortmans, head of the department of radiation oncology at the Institut Curie, Paris, France, will tell participants at the annual American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) congress that these findings settle once and for all the question as to whether radiation therapy is beneficial for these patients.

Results from the international randomised trial, carried out by the European Organisation for the Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) and which involved 4004 patients with stage I to III breast cancer from 43 centres, are convincing, he says. "Our results make it clear that irradiating these lymph nodes gives a better patient outcome than giving radiation therapy to the breast/thoracic wall alone. Not only have we shown that such treatment has a beneficial effect on disease control, but it also improves breast-cancer related survival," he will tell the meeting.

Lymphatic drainage from breast cancer to the regional lymph nodes means that the cancer is more likely to spread to other parts of the body. This drainage follows two pathways. The best known is to the axilla (armpit), and these lymph nodes are usually treated by surgery and/or radiation therapy. The second pathway drains to the internal mammary (IM) lymph nodes behind the breast bone, and probably from there to those just above the collar bone, the medial supraclavicular (MS) nodes. Because of uncertainty about the effects of treatment in this area, and particularly concerns about the increased toxicity that might be caused by the irradiation of a larger area, until recently only about half of radiation oncology centres treated the IM-MS lymph nodes.
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After a median follow-up of 15.7 years, the researchers found a significant reduction in deaths from breast cancer (16.0% in the treatment group vs. 19.8% in the control group), and in the return of breast cancer in patients who had received radiation to the IM-MS nodes (24.5% vs. 27.1%). A total of 1117 patients had died during the time. Overall survival was 73.2% in the IM-MS group and 70.8% in the control group. There was no increase in non-breast cancer related mortality in the first group and to date there has been no increased level of serious complications related to the treatment. There was no difference in the incidence of second cancers, cancer in the other breast, or deaths from cardiovascular disease between the two groups.

Wearable fitness trackers, such as the popular Fitbit, have the potential to help doctors predict which patients will do well on a course of chemotherapy, and be able to intervene before unexpected admissions to the hospital, experts believe.

Researchers said that in the future doctors might be able to use the technology in a number of ways, such as to predict which patients would not perform well in clinical trials. The study was presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncologists conference in Chicago.

“What we’ve learned is that we can get an objective metric of patient performance with the use of these modern technological tools,” stated Jorge Nieva, one of many authors of the analysis from the University of Southern California. He stated the expertise may in impact plug sufferers into the “internet of things”, referring to house items or gadgets which have a web-based connection.

“We’ve all got our home sprinkler systems and our thermostats, all connected to the internet – there’s no reason that our patients shouldn’t also be connected to the internet and have the potential to have monitoring and smart interventions, based on their performance and functioning,” Nieva stated.

Cancer researchers specifically have gravitated towards health trackers as a approach to objectively measure sufferers’ high quality of life. As of December 2015, almost 300 medical trials integrated health trackers to gather private knowledge, in keeping with Bloomberg.

Cancer drops sparse chemical hints of its presence early on, but unfortunately, many of them are in a class of biochemicals that could not be detected thoroughly, until now.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have engineered a chemical trap that exhaustively catches what are called glycoproteins, including minuscule traces that have previously escaped detection.
Glycoproteins are protein molecules bonded with sugar molecules, and they're very common in all living things. Glycoproteins come in myriad varieties and sizes and make up important cell structures like cell receptors. They also wander around our bodies in secretions like mucus or hormones.
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But some glycoproteins are very, very rare and can serve as an early signal, or biomarker, indicating there's something wrong in the body - like cancer. Existing methods to reel in glycoproteins for laboratory examination are relatively new and have had big holes in their nets, so many of these molecules, especially those very rare ones produced by cancer, have tended to slip by.
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Sorry, faint cancer cues made of glycoproteins, but you'll have a very hard time dodging the chemical octopus. The parts shaped like a hexagon-pentagon combo are benzoboroxoles, which make great glycoprotein grabbers, and they're stitched together to form highly flexible arms with a long reach. In the middle is a magnetic bead that researchers use as a handle to extract the octopus along with the glycoproteins it nabs.
CREDIT Georgia Tech / Wu / Xiao & NYPL Digital Commons / Brumfield

Parenting concerns contributed significantly to the psychological distress of mothers with late-stage cancer, according to a study by University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers.

Cancer is the leading cause of disease-specific death for parenting-age women in the United States, and women with incurable cancer who have children can have increased rates of depression and anxiety. To better understand how parenting concerns might relate to the quality of life for this group, UNC Lineberger researchers surveyed 224 mothers with advanced cancer. They found that parenting concerns were significantly associated with lower quality of life - almost as much as declines in day-to-day physical functioning. The findings, published in the journal Cancer, point to a need for greater support for mothers with metastatic cancer, researchers say.
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"As part of cancer care, we ask about patients' functional status, and how they are responding to treatment, but we are not systematically asking how cancer impacts our patients as parents, yet we know being a parent is incredibly important to their identity and well-being," said UNC Lineberger's Eliza M. Park, MD, assistant professor in the UNC School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Department of Medicine. "Among women with metastatic cancer, their health-related quality of life is powerfully interlinked with their parenting concerns about the impact of their illness on their minor children. It appears to equally contribute to someone's assessment of their quality of life as some of the clinical variables we routinely ask about."

Consuming high amounts of carbohydrates and various forms of sugar during the year prior to treatment for head and neck cancer may increase patients' risks of cancer recurrence and mortality, a new study reports. However, eating moderate amounts of fats and starchy foods such as whole grains, potatoes and legumes after treatment could have protective benefits, reducing patients' risks of disease recurrence and death, said lead author Anna E. Arthur, a professor of food science and human nutrition at the University of Illinois.

In the study, researchers tracked the pre- and post-treatment diets and health outcomes of more than 400 cancer patients. Participants were followed for an average of 26 months after they were first diagnosed and treated for squamous-cell carcinoma of the head or neck; all were patients of the University of Michigan Head and Neck Specialized Program of Research Excellence. The study was published recently in the International Journal of Cancer.

Participants' typical intake of food, beverages and supplements was assessed for the year prior to diagnosis and for one year post-treatment using the Harvard Food Frequency Questionnaire. Patients who consumed the lowest amounts of simple carbohydrates - which included refined grains, desserts and sugar-sweetened beverages - consumed about 1.3 servings daily, compared with about 4.4 servings by patients who were considered high intake.

Patients who consumed the most total carbohydrates and sugars - in the forms of sucrose, fructose, lactose and maltose - in the year preceding cancer treatment were at greater risk of mortality from any cause during the follow-up period, Arthur said.

Among the study population, the most commonly diagnosed cancers were in the oral cavity and the oropharynx, which includes the tonsils, the base of the tongue and surrounding tissues. More than 69 percent of participants were diagnosed when the disease was at stage 3 or stage 4. Patients' average age at diagnosis was about 61.

During the follow-up period, more than 17 percent of patients experienced recurrence of their cancer, and 42 patients died from it. Another 70 participants died from other causes, according to the study.

Survivors of adolescent and young adult cancer often have stronger social networks than their non-cancer peers, according to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital researchers, who hope to translate that support into better lives for the nation's growing population of cancer survivors. The findings appear online today in the journal Cancer.

"Cancer survivors need healthy social connections, and to the best of our knowledge this is the first published study to quantify social networks of adolescent and young adult cancer survivors compared to their peers," said I-Chan Huang, Ph.D., an associate member of the St. Jude Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control, who led the study. "The study introduces a method we developed and validated for evaluating social networks of these cancer survivors."

The method, called the functional social network index, proved a better predictor of survivors' ability to cope with life's challenges than two traditional methods for measuring social networks, researchers reported. Instead of measuring just the structure of social networks (who knows whom), marital status or membership in church or community groups, the functional social network index also measures social networks as a source of emotional and practical support from friends and relatives, as well as advice about weight management and physical activity. Adolescent and young adult cancer survivors are more likely than their non-cancer peers to be sedentary and overweight or obese.

The study tracked social networks of 102 survivors of adolescent and young adult cancer ages 18 to 30 and a similar group of 102 young adults with no cancer history. Participants were recruited from a commercial national internet survey panel; each of the participants reported detailed social connection information with up to 25 friends and relatives. The survivors were between 15 and 30 years old when their cancer was diagnosed. All were at least five years from completion of therapy.

Compared to those in the non-cancer group, the St. Jude index showed that as a group, cancer survivors had more available resources for emotional and practical support as well as advice on weight and physical activity. "This makes sense," Huang said. "Because of their cancer, survivors often have strong networks of physicians, friends and relatives to provide advice and support."

But the strength of the support network varied by diagnosis. Lymphoma survivors ranked highest on the functional social network index, followed by survivors of leukemia and solid tumors. Survivors of brain and central nervous system malignancies had the weakest social networks, even weaker than their non-cancer peers. A higher social network index was associated with better coping skills, including less denial, less destructive behavior, greater use of emotional and practical support, planning for the future and participating in religious activities.

"Brain tumor survivors may experience more treatment-related neurocognitive problems that make communication and forming social networks more difficult," Huang said.

If you are from a lower income area, your chances of surviving anal cancer are significantly reduced, according to a new study published online in Cancer.

Among the first of its kind, the study shows that both overall survival -- and cancer specific survival -- can be predicted by median household income (MHI) after controlling for additional factors like age, sex, race, and stage of cancer. Investigators found chance of death increased by about 30 percent for those living in areas of poverty.

"Living in a low-income area shouldn't dictate your outcome with cancer and, based on this research, we're seeing that it does," says Daniel Becker, MD, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Medicine and Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Perlmutter Cancer Center. "The benefit of this study is that we're identifying higher-risk populations that need additional resources to improve outcomes."

As a relatively rare, but highly treatable disease, squamous cell carcinoma of the anus (SCAA) has been rising in incidence and currently accounts for more than 8,200 cases annually in the United States. This increasing incidence is potentially due to changing trends in sexual behavior and other risk factors like human papilloma virus and smoking.

Future cancer drugs that are activated by light and don't cause the toxic side-effects of current chemotherapy treatments are closer to becoming a reality, thanks to new research by the University of Warwick and Monash University

• Cancer drugs activated by light, minimizing toxic side-effects, are a step closer thanks to new research from University of Warwick and Monash University through the Monash Warwick Alliance
• Platinum-based chemotherapy drug candidate kills cancer cells in specific targeted areas, and totally inactive unless triggered by light - minimises harm towards healthy tissue
• Researchers used infrared spectroscopy, an old spectroscopic technique showing a resurgence in recent years, to discover how the anticancer therapy uniquely functions upon activation with light

Led by Robbin Vernooij, a joint PhD student from the Monash Warwick Alliance, fresh insight has been gained into how a pioneering platinum-based chemotherapy drug candidate functions when activated by light.

The treatment - originally developed by Professor Peter Sadler's research group in the University of Warwick's Department of Chemistry - is an inorganic-metal compound with an unusual mechanism, which kills cancer cells in specific targeted areas, in an effort to minimize toxic side-effects on healthy tissue.
Completely inactive and non-toxic in the dark, the treatment can be inserted into cancerous areas, its functions triggered only when directed light hits it - causing the compound to degrade into active platinum and releasing ligand molecules to attack cancer cells.

Using an old spectroscopic technique - infrared spectroscopy - the researchers observed what happens to the structure of the compound by following the metal as well as molecules released from the compound.
The researchers shone infrared light on the inorganic-metal compound in the laboratory, and measured the vibrations of its molecules as it was activated.
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From this, they discovered the chemical and physical properties of the compound: some of the organic ligands, which are attached to the metal atoms of the compound, become detached and are replaced with water whilst other ligands remain stable around the metal.

This fresh insight into the mechanics of the treatment offers new hope that photoactive chemotherapy drug candidates will progress from the laboratory to future clinical trials.