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The National Cancer Institute has awarded $8.2 million over the next five years to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to extend its role as the coordinating hub of a nationwide research consortium that aims to better understand the link between obesity and cancer. The $45 million, five-year initiative also will study the underlying behavioral causes of obesity and ways to prevent it, particularly among children, cancer survivors and others at high risk.

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Using a “systems biology” approach – which focuses on understanding the complex relationships between biological systems – to look under the hood of an aggressive form of breast cancer, researchers for the first time have identified a set of proteins in the blood that change in abundance long before the cancer is clinically detectable.

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Whether a stem cell transplant using an HIV-infected person’s own genetically modified immune cells can become a cure for the disease is the focus of a new $20 million, five-year research grant award announced today by the National Institutes of Health to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

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The Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Shanghai CDC) and the Breast Health Global Initiative (BHGI), headquartered at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, jointly will establish the Shanghai Breast Health Resource Center as BHGI’s first “learning laboratory” in China. The project is a result of the two organizations formalizing their ongoing relationship by signing a collaboration agreement.

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Researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have demonstrated in mice that the performance of a novel biomarker-development pipeline using targeted mass spectrometry is robust enough to support the use of an analogous approach in humans. The findings, by principal investigator Amanda Paulovich, M.D., Ph.D., an associate member of the Hutchinson Center’s Clinical Research Division, are published in Nature Biotechnology.

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Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center announced today that it is relaunching an online study to help people quit smoking. The study, called WebQuit, is enrolling adult smokers nationwide. Participation is free to eligible individuals.

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Benjamin Anderson, M.D., a researcher in the Public Health Sciences Division of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and director of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance’s Breast Health Clinic, is the 2011 recipient of the Partners in Progress award given by the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

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An analysis linking federal bankruptcy court records to cancer registry data from nearly 232,000 adult cancer cases in western Washington during a 14-year period has found a hidden cost to survival: Insolvency rates increase along with the length of survival.

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Overweight or obese women with less-than-optimal levels of vitamin D who lose more than 15 percent of their body weight experience significant increases in circulating levels of this fat-soluble nutrient, according to a new study by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

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Researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have discovered a new drug target for squamous cell carcinoma – the second most common form of skin cancer. Scientists in the laboratory of Valeri Vasioukhin, Ph.D., have found that a protein called alpha-catenin acts as a tumor suppressor and they also have unlocked the mechanism by which this protein controls cell proliferation.

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HIV/AIDS vaccine experts from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and vaccine trial participants are available for interviews about the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s announcement of the nation’s first identified HIV infections.

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Cell biologist Daniel Gottschling, Ph.D., a member of the Basic Sciences Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has been elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences. Election to NAS is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer.

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Many patients who undergo bone marrow or blood stem cell transplantation to treat blood cancers or a “pre-leukemic” condition called myelodysplasia experience a decline in mental and fine motor skills due to the toll of their disease and its treatment. A new study led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, published in the May 2, 2011 online edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, found that overall, these effects are largely temporary and that most patients can expect a return to normal motor and memory function within five years. However, the study also found that deficits in fine motor skills and verbal memory remained for a significant percentage of patients and warrant more attention by health care providers.

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The largest study to examine the association of dietary fats and prostate cancer risk has found found those with the highest blood percentages of DHA, an inflammation-lowering omega-3 fatty acid commonly found in fatty fish, have more than twice the risk of developing aggressive, high-grade prostate cancer compared to men with the lowest DHA levels.

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By shedding new light on how cells migrate in the developing brain, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center also may have found a new mechanism by which other types of cells, including cancer cells, travel within the body.

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A new study led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has found that when it comes to losing weight and body fat, diet and exercise are most effective when done together as compared to either strategy alone.

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Had a large stockpile of oral cholera vaccine been available and deployed to inoculate the majority of Haitians most at risk after the outbreak following last year’s earthquake, the illness and death from the cholera epidemic could have been reduced by about half, according to new research.

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Research institutions at 27 sites in the U.S. and Canada have been selected to participate in the Cancer Immunotherapy Trials Network (CITN), a new initiative in immunotherapy funded by the National Cancer Institute and headquartered at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. CITN will establish a network of top academic immunologists to conduct multicenter research on promising new agents that boost patients’ own immune systems to fight their cancer.

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A landmark breast health care publication reveals a multitude of barriers that keep women of developing nations from being screened and treated for breast cancer – but offers tools to help countries improve their breast care programs.

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A study of Yup’ik Eskimos in Alaska, who on average consume 20 times more omega-3 fats from fish than people in the lower 48 states, suggests that a high intake of these fats helps prevent obesity-related chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.

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He can discuss short- and long-term effects of exposure to high levels of environmental radiation from nuclear accidents.

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Twelve graduate students from institutes throughout North America have been chosen to receive the 2011 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award sponsored by the Basic Sciences Division of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Nominations were solicited internationally; the winners were selected on the basis of the quality, originality and significance of their work.

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Despite the fact that colon cancer screening saves lives, the majority of U.S. adults age 50 and over who are eligible for such screening fail to take advantage of it. Consider the numbers: In 2000, only 16.3 million of 80 million eligible adults (about 20 percent) received colon cancer screening such as the fecal occult blood test (the most popular choice), sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy.

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Full-term pregnancy has long been associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer, but a new study finds that the more times a woman gives birth, the higher her risk of “triple-negative” breast cancer, a relatively uncommon but particularly aggressive subtype of the disease.

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Women who have experienced hot flushes and other symptoms of menopause may have a 50 percent lower risk of developing the most common forms of breast cancer than postmenopausal women who have never had such symptoms, according to a recent study by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

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Do genetic variations in DNA determine the outcome and success in patients who undergo stem-cell transplantation to treat blood cancers and predict complications? The National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute of the National Institutes of Health has awarded a $4.3 million, four-year grant to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to help find out.

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Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center basic scientists Roger Brent, Ph.D., a systems biologist, and Robert Eisenman, Ph.D., a molecular biologist and geneticist, have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS. Election as a fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.

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Six research-based tips from investigators at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center that may help jump start one’s weight loss progress in the coming year.

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The National Cancer Institute has awarded $11.5 million to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to lead a five-year, Seattle-based breast cancer research consortium. The goal of the endeavor is to positively impact breast cancer prevention, detection, treatment and care of women who have or are at risk for the disease.

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Muneesh Tewari, M.D., Ph.D., an oncologist and cancer researcher at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers – the nation’s highest honor for scientists at the beginning of their independent research careers. Tewari, an assistant member of the Hutchinson Center’s Human Biology Division, is among 85 researchers and engineers nationwide to receive the honor this year.

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The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center today formalized an ongoing relationship by signing a collaboration agreement. It marks the first such agreement between the China CDC and a U.S. cancer research center.

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An international team of researchers led by an investigator from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has made a second critical advance in determining the cause of a common form of muscular dystrophy known as facioscapulohumeral dystrophy, or FSHD.

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Today’s tip sheet, the fourth and final in the series, is “10 Tips for Breast Cancer Survivors” provided by Karen Syrjala, Ph.D., director of Biobehavioral Sciences and co-director of the Survivorship Program at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

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Throughout October, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, experts from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and its clinical care partner, the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, are offering a series of weekly research-based tip sheets regarding a variety of topics related to breast cancer, including breast cancer prevention, screening and early detection, treatment, and survivorship.

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Today’s tip sheet, the second of four in the series, is “10 Tips for Breast Cancer Screening and Early Detection” provided by Constance Lehman, M.D., Ph.D., director of Breast Imaging and medical director of Radiology at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

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Throughout October, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, experts from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and its clinical care partner, the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, are offering a series of weekly research-based tip sheets regarding a variety of topics related to breast cancer, including breast cancer prevention, screening and early detection, treatment, and survivorship.

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The first large-scale study of the relationship between radiation dose and risk of multiple cancers among atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan reveals a similar risk in the development of first and second subsequent cancers.

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Those familiar yellow football penalty flags that are thrown by referees will be replaced with special light blue ones this week during dozens of high school football games in five states.

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For the first time, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have identified and isolated adult mammary stem cells in mice. Long-term implications of this research may include the use of such cells to regenerate breast tissue, provide a better understanding of the role of adult stem cells in breast cancer development, and develop potential new targets for anti-cancer drugs.

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An international team of researchers that includes investigators from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has made a critical advance in determining the cause of a common form of muscular dystrophy known as facioscapulohumeral dystrophy, or FSHD.

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Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center announced today that it is launching a new online study to help people quit smoking. The study, called WebQuit, is enrolling adult smokers nationwide. Participation is free to eligible individuals.

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How is it that some people who apparently freeze to death can be brought back to life with no long-term negative health consequences? New findings from the laboratory of Mark B. Roth, Ph.D., of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center may help explain the mechanics behind this phenomenon.

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The bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which lives in the human stomach and is associated with ulcers and gastric cancer, is shaped like a corkscrew, or helix. For years researchers have hypothesized that the bacterium’s twisty shape is what enables it to survive – and thrive – within the stomach’s acid-drenched environment, but until now they have had no proof.

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The National Institutes of Health has awarded $10.24 million to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to lead a five-year study that aims to understand and prevent breast cancer disparities in Hispanic women.

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Cell biologist Daniel Gottschling, Ph.D., a member of the Basic Sciences Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, has been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, or AAAS, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and independent policy-research centers.

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Women with breast cancer before age 55 who carry an inherited mutation in the breast cancer susceptibility genes BRCA1 or BRCA2 are four times more likely to develop cancer in the breast opposite, or contralateral, to their initial tumor as compared to breast cancer patients without these genetic defects.

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The Breast Health Global Initiative (BHGI) and the Latin American & Caribbean Society of Medical Oncology (SLACOM) will convene the fourth biennial BHGI Global Summit on International Breast Health June 9-11, 2010 in Chicago, bringing together collaborating national and international organizations to address the optimization of breast health care delivery in limited-resource countries. The theme for the 2010 Summit is “Optimizing Health Care Delivery.”

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Clinic sites in 13 cities across the U.S. are looking for a total of 1,350 HIV-negative gay men to participate in the latest HIV vaccine study from the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN). And they’re using social media to help reach these individuals where they are, which, these days, is increasingly online.

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Women who take some types of bone-building drugs used to prevent and treat osteoporosis may be at lower risk of breast cancer, according to a study by U.S. researchers led by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

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The incidence of advanced breast cancer diagnosis among black women remained 30 percent to 90 percent higher compared to white women between 1992 and 2004, according to new findings by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. In addition, the disparity in the incidence of advance colorectal cancer actually widened over this time period as rates fell among whites but increased slightly among blacks.