Scientists have identified seven new genetic variants that appear to be linked with increase risk of prostate cancer. Among these are four new “single-letter” genetic variants on one particular chromosome, called 8q24.

This chromosomal region has previously been associated with breast, colon, and bladder cancer. The discoveries identifying the four new genetic locations associated with prostate cancer on chromosome 8q24 were made by teams of independent scientists around the world. Three separate research papers on the discoveries are published in the online issue of Nature Genetics.

In one of the papers, Rosalind Eeles, from the London, UK Institute of Cancer Research laboratory (ICR) and colleagues in the Genetic Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, report on the discovery of seven new prostate cancer susceptibility loci. In this video Dr. Eeles explains what her team found. She says they plan to take the results “into the clinic” to try to predict which men may need early testing for prostate cancer. Dr. Eeles says 8q is a “very interesting part of the genome for solid cancer risk.”

the 4th C2 Academic Retreat (C2R) being organized jointly by the Canadian Urologic Oncology Group (CUOG) and the Canadian Urology Research Consortium (CURC) is scheduled for the weekend of September 25 to 27, 2009 at the fashionable hotel called W in Montreal.

According to UroToday, “this three-day educational event will include provocative ‘Town Hall’ sessions on the topics of Hormone Replacement and Cancer Risk, Prostrate Screening Controversies and the use of Robotic Technology in Surgery (Is it ready for prime time?).” “The line-up of topics and the caliber of presenters is unsurpassed in all the years we have been conducting these events,” says Dr. Laurence Klotz, Chair of the CURC and immediate past president of the Canadian Urology Association (CUA).

The Retreat allows the sponsoring (and often competing) pharmaceutical companies (i.e. Amgen AstraZeneca, Sanofi Aventis, GlaxoSmitKline, Merck Frosst, Novartis, Minoque Medical, Genesis Genomics, and Pfizer) to actively participate in the academic portion of the agenda.

A study published in Clinical Cancer Research August 18 2009 reports that an extract of the Chinese herb Wedelia (a member of the Asteraceae, or sunflower family of plants) shrinks the androgen receptor and prostate cancer in male mice.

“Wedelia chinensis,” the authors write, “is a common ingredient of anti-inflammatory herbal medicines in Taiwan and southern China. Inflammation is involved in promoting tumor growth, invasion, and metastasis. This study aims to test the biological effects in vivo of W. chinensis extract on prostate cancer.”

Scientists have made a discovery about antibiotics that may advance cancer therapy. By studying the mechanisms at work in protein production, a Princeton-led team has discovered why certain kinds of antibiotics are so effective.

The new discovery exposes how a specific protein protects against cell death. This may also shed light on the cancer-fighting process, because cancer involves inability of defective cells to die off.

In particular, the new discovery is relevant to study of a human protein known as Bax Inhibitor-1 (BI-1) that has been found to affect metastatic spread of prostate and other cancers.

James Watson, the scientist who was one of the discoverers of the double-helical structure of DNA, says in an op-ed today that the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is “a largely rudderless ship in dire need of a bold captain.” Aside from that, Watson is optimistic: