Cancer Carnival #44

Welcome to the 44th edition of the Cancer Research Blog Carnival. It's a short one this month. The Carnival relies on posts and hosts, the more submissions the more content, so be sure to submit your posts for next month or drop us a line to sign up as a future host.

Walter at HighlightHEALTH has a post up about genetic signatures that distinguish cancer patients from non-cancer patients.

A unique, reproducible and statistically significant motif of 18 pattern-specific microsatellite families was identified in germline and tumor DNA from breast cancer patients but not in germline DNA of cancer-free patients or in breast cancer patients with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations.

The post includes more in-depth description of the work and a video with the institute director discussing the results.

At Health and Life, David writes about the arthritis drug leflunomide for skin cancer.

Scientists conducted tests on the drug leflunomide and discovered it drastically reduced tumour growth in mice too. Combined with another experimental melanoma drug called PLX4720, they were amazed to find the two compounds almost stopped cancer growth completely.

A brief overview of melanoma and skin cancer rates is also included.

Over at 80beats, there's a piece about a new device capable of detecting even a single circulating cancerous cell.

Scientists have developed a new carbon nanotube device (pictured above) that’s capable of detecting single cancer cells. Once implemented in hospitals, this microfluidic device could let doctors more efficiently detect the spread of cancer, especially in developing countries that don’t have the money for more sophisticated diagnostic equipment.

Finally, Reportergene sends us a quickie about trends in biomarker mice, including liver cancer self-reporting mice that can spotlight cancer development before lesions are evident.

That's it for this month's Cancer Research Blog Carnival. For older editions, visit the Carnival Homepage. Don't forget, the CRBC has subscription options; you can follow by email or RSS feed. An aggregated feed of credible, rotating health and medicine blog carnivals is also available. For a broader collection of science-related blog carnivals, sign up for the Science, Medicine, Environment and Nature Blog Carnival Twitter Feed.