News

New combination therapy could deliver powerful punch to breast cancer

Toni Baker — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:01 -0500

AUGUSTA, Ga. � A powerful new breast cancer treatment could result from packaging one of the newer drugs that inhibits cancer's hallmark wild growth with another that blocks a primordial survival technique in which the cancer cell eats part of itself, researchers say.While they are powerful killers of some breast cancer cells, new drugs called histone deacetylase inhibitors, or HDAC inhibitors, also increase self-digestion, or autophagy, in surviving, mega-stressed cells, Medical College of Georgia Cancer Center researchers reported during the Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics International Conference this week in Boston. The conference is sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research, the National Cancer Institute and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer.

Sleep disorders, head and neck cancer "capture" Dr. Jimmy Brown

Toni Baker — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:07 -0500

Jimmy James Brown grew from being a child afraid of going to the dentist to completing dental and medical school and treating patients with sleep disorders and head and neck cancer.

Thyroid surgery safe for older patients, study finds

Toni Baker — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:29 -0500

AUGUSTA, Ga. � Thyroid surgery is safe for older patients, say physicians who found only slight differences in rates of complications and hospital readmissions in a multi-year study.

MCG Cancer Center: Three years and growing

Toni Baker — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:40 -0500

The second floor of the Cancer Research Center was recently finished out as well as a portion of the first floor. The physical progress is one sign of the steady growth in MCG's cancer initiative.

New pediatric chair to build on legacy of children�s research, education and treatment

Toni Baker — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:56 -0500

The new chair of pediatrics at the Medical College of Georgia wants to expand research, clinical and educational programs to benefit children.

Mini-Medical School fall semester begins Oct. 6

Amy Connell — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:19 -0500

AUGUSTA, Ga. � Benign breast diseases, movement disorders, in vitro fertilization, coronary heart disease and pancreatic cancer are among the topics slated for the fall semester of the Medical College of Georgia Mini-Medical School that begins Oct. 6. The lecture series, conducted by MCG faculty members, helps educate the public about health care as it gives them a taste of what medical students learn.

AAMC official stresses strategic planning for future research funding success

Damon Cline — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:19 -0500

The chief science officer for the Association of American Medical Colleges told a group of top Medical College of Georgia scientists and clinicians that the near-term outlook for federal research funding is good. However, she cautioned that academic medical centers must think and act more strategically to successfully obtain future funding.

Grant will expand former smoker-led intervention program

Jennifer Hilliard — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:18 -0500

Researchers are helping women who live in public housing in Georgia and South Carolina stop smoking through a proven former smoker-led intervention program.

Protein handlers should be effective treatment target for cancer and Alzheimer's

Toni Baker — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:57 -0500

Cancer and Alzheimer's have excess protein in common and scientists say learning more about how proteins are made and eliminated will lead to better treatment for both. Medical College of Georgia researchers Drs. Nahid F. Mivechi and Dimitrios Moskofidis have received two National Cancer Institute grants totaling nearly $3 million and a $982,800, four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in the last 12 months to support studies of proteins and the molecular chaperones that mange them from cradle to grave.

Cancer's distinctive pattern of gene expression could aid early screening and prevention

Toni Baker — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:42 -0500

� Distinctive patterns of genes turned off � or left on � in healthy versus cancerous cells could enable early screening for many common cancers and maybe help avoid them, Medical College of Georgia scientists say. Researchers are comparing chemical alterations, called DNA methylation, in the body's basic building block in healthy colon, breast, brain and lymphatic cells and their cancerous counterpart to find telltale patterns that could one day be detected in the blood, urine or feces.