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Circulating tumor cells are believed to contribute to cancer metastasis, the grim process of the disease spreading from its original site to distant tissues. Blood tests that count these cells can help doctors predict how long a patient with widespread cancer will live.    Read more

A new study sheds more light on how an anti-aging gene suppresses cancer growth, joint U-M Health System and Harvard Medical School research shows. Loss of the SIRT6 protein in mice increases the number, size and aggressiveness of tumors, according to the new research published in the scientific journal Cell. The study also suggests that the loss of SIRT6 promotes tumor growth in human colon and pancreatic cancers.    Read more.

A new class of drugs reduced the risk of patients contracting a serious and often deadly side effect of lifesaving bone marrow transplant treatments, according to a study from researchers at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center. The study, the first to test this treatment in people, combined the drug vorinostat with standard medications given after transplant, resulting in 21% of patients developing graft-vs.-host disease compared to 42% of patients who typically develop this condition with standard medications alone.   Read more

Women undergoing chemotherapy who experience cognitive problems, commonly referred to as "chemo brain," displayed alterations in neurocognitive responses prior to undergoing treatment, according to data presented at the 2012 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 4-8.    Read more

A previously invincible mutation in chronic myeloid leukemia has been thwarted by an investigational drug in a phase I clinical trial reported in the going to a new website The New England Journal of Medicine. All 12 patients in the trial with chronic phase CML and the T315I mutation had no traces of CML cells in the blood after treatment with ponatinib.    Read more

A new drug, cabozantinib, demonstrated dramatic and rapid effects on prostate cancer that had spread to the bone, according to a study reported by U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers. Tumors were reduced on bone scans, bone pain decreased after patients received cabozantinib. Read more

Limiting advanced imaging tests such as CT scans for patients with early stage breast cancer can improve the quality and reduce the cost of care, yet a new University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center study shows many patients still receive such tests despite being at low risk for recurrence.     Read more