National Cancer Institute

A controversial drug to treat two lethal types of cancer has won approval from the Food and Drug Administration for wider trials in humans, it was announced. An FDA spokeswoman said the agency will permit the National Cancer Institute to expand the use of interleukin-2 to a larger number of patients with advanced melanoma and kidney cancer. The treatment will be available to patients selected for participation in tests at NCI-approved cancer centers.

Frying, broiling and barbecuing produce potentially carcinogenic compounds in meat, chicken and fish, but microwaving, stewing and poaching do not, the National Cancer Institute said in reporting on a laboratory study. Researchers at the institute's Division of Cancer Etiology found that cooking at high temperatures and for a long time produced compounds that caused cancer in monkeys and other lab animals. Dr.

Deep in the fine print of a $633-billion defense bill signed by President Obama on Wednesday, a provision aimed at the National Cancer Institute may hasten the development of earlier detection and treatment methods for deadly malignancies such as pancreatic cancer. The Defense Authorization Act signed into law Jan. 2 carried along the Recalcitrant Cancer Research Act, a measure pressed by the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and the Lung Cancer Alliance to shift the focus of the federal government's cancer research toward malignancies with poor early-detection and low survival rates.

A new genetic test may help determine whether a small tumor in the breast is likely to turn in to full-blown breast cancer, according to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The small tumor, called a ductal carcinoma in-situ, or DCIS, resides in the milk ducts and is generally considered pre-cancerous. But according to the study, DCIS lesions left untreated will eventually progress to breast cancer in about 50% of patients. The lesions, which tend to be small and only detectable via mammogram, have become increasingly common as mammography has become more widespread.

Taking an acetaminophen tablet daily for at least five years reduces the risk of developing prostate cancer by 38%, researchers from the American Cancer Society reported Monday. Using the drug, the best-known form of which is Tylenol, also reduces the risk of the more aggressive form of prostate cancer by 51%, the team reported in the online version of the journal Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention. Previous research has shown that daily doses of aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)

This year's Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, released online Monday, brought Americans good news and bad.  Extending a trend since the early 1990s, authors reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that cancer deaths have continued to fall in the United States, with rates declining 1.5% per year for all cancers, in both sexes combined, from 2000 to 2009.  Deaths from the most common cancers - including lung,...

The federal government and the American Cancer Society on Monday announced a stop-smoking drive expected to reach more than one-fifth of the U.S. population and at least 15 million smokers. The National Cancer Institute estimates it will spend $116.5 million on the project, which is being billed as "the world's largest" effort to reduce smoking.