ACA increased colorectal cancer screening

The study’s coauthors are Brett Lissenden, a fifth-year
student in UVA’s economics Ph.D. program, and Aaron
Yao, an assistant professor in the Department of Public
Health Sciences. (Photo by Dan Addison, University
Communications)

CANCER DIGEST – Jan. 21, 2017 – The Affordable Care Act increased cancer screenings, and especially increased colorectal cancer screenings between 2011 and 2013, say researchers at the University of Virginia.

One of the main goals of the law that came to be known as Obamacare was to reduce healthcare costs in part by increasing coverage for prevention care on the theory that treating certain diseases such as cancer is less expensive when caught early when the disease is more treatable.

Malaria drug may be cancer treatment

A new study by University of Kentucky Markey Cancer
Center researchers shows that chloroquine – a drug
currently used to treat malaria – may be useful in
treating patients with metastatic cancers.

A drug used to treat malaria may be useful in halting the spread of cancer cells, researchers say.

In a study published in the January 2017 Cell Reports, researchers at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer center showed in both mouse models and in cancer patients in a clinical trial that the drug chloroquine triggers the production of a protein, called Par-4, a protein that plays a key role in tumor cell death and metastasis.

Promising drug may halt spread of deadly skin cancer

CANCER DIGEST – Jan. 6, 2017 – A potential new drug may block the spread of melanoma, the deadly form of skin cancer, by up to 90 percent, say researchers at the University of Michigan.

The drug developed originally to treat scleroderma, a rare but often fatal autoimmune disease, was found to be effective in blocking the genetic mechanism that triggers melanoma’s spread to other parts of the body.