Prostate Cancer

...The findings, reported in the journal Nature, explain the puzzle of why certain cancers spread to the bones and how interfering with the process could help to prevent the spread of the disease.

When the researchers gave mice with skin cancer a drug that blocked RANKL, the rodents had fewer tumours in their bones than animals that were not treated.

But the drug did not slow the spread of the cancer to other sites in the body.

Penninger and his colleagues stressed that the research was done in mice but they added that drugs that interfere with RANKL are in development which could be used test their findings and show it the same holds true for humans.

"This is an idea that can be directly tested," Penninger added.

Nearly all breast cancer tumours in women have the receptor for RANKL which Penninger said is an indirect indication that the findings are relevant to humans.

"Since there are novel inhibitors of RANKL far along in clinical development, the idea is that people who have cancer that is known to spread to bone can start taking this drug when they are diagnosed," said Holstead Jones, of the University of Toronto and the lead author of the study.

"It would inhibit how much bone metastases they would have," he added in a statement.

Every year an estimated one million people develop metastases to the bones, particularly women with breast cancer.

Drugs that inhibit RANKL may also help to alleviate the severe pain that metast...

... Life begins to go downhill at 30 - World - smh.com.au NEWS register www.smh.com.au Home » World » Article Life begins to go downhill at 30 Email Print Normal font Large font March 31, 2006 There was a time when biologists believed ageing was controlled by some inner mechanism that imposes an upper limit on life span.

But this explanation has fallen out of favour, replaced by the idea that it is simply a build-up of tiny faults and waste products as our cells go about their business.

In addition, the body starts to streamline itself after 30.

Between the ages of 30 and 80, a person will lose 40 per cent of muscle mass, for example.

Not only do we lose muscle fibres, but those left are weaker.

The story is similar with bones: the strength and mass of the skeleton rises until the early 30s, after which men lose about 1 per cent of their bone mass a decade.

Women lose bone at the same rate in the decade before menopause, but, on reaching menopause, the loss jumps to about 1 per cent a year for several years before going back to the same rate as men.

"In five years, women's skeletons age by 50 years compared with men," says Tim Skerry, a professor of ...

... PharmaLive: AVEO Pharmaceuticals Appoints John Ryan, Ph.D., M.D., as Chief Medical Officer TODAY ON PHARMALIVE.COM AVEO Pharmaceuticals Appoints John Ryan, Ph.D., M.D., as Chief Medical Officer Dr.

Ryan's Expertise in Translational Medicine a Key Addition as AVEO Moves its Portfolio of Novel Cancer Medicines Forward into the Clinic CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 30, 2006 /PRNewswire/ - AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel cancer medicines, announced today that John L.

Ryan, Ph.D., M.D., has joined the company as Chief Medical Officer.

Dr.

Ryan will be responsible for clinical strategy and development of AVEO's pipeline, including AV-412, a novel dual kinase inhibitor scheduled to enter the clinic by the middle of this year.

Dr.

Ryan brings almost 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development to AVEO, including expertise in translational medicine and cancer biology.

He joins the company after 11 years at Wyeth where he most recently held the position of Senior Vice President of Translational Research.

In 2001, he was appointed head of the new Department of Experimental Medicine, which was created to explore new technologies such as pharmacogenomics in exploratory clinical trials, to work closely with FDA on clinical pharmacogenomics, and to bridge discovery and development with the creation of new biomarkers.

In 1998, he was promoted to Senior Vice President of Clinical Research & Development and assu...