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Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN) announced that the Phase 3 PRIME "203" trial evaluating Vectibix® (panitumumab) administered in combination with FOLFOX (an oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy) as a first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) failed to meet a secondary endpoint of overall survival.

Scientists are reporting development of a nano-size capsule that boosts the body's uptake of curcumin, an ingredient in yellow curry now being evaluated in clinical trials for treatment of several diseases. Their study is in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication. Koji Wada and colleagues note that curcumin is a potent antioxidant found in the spice, turmeric.

The effectiveness of a screening colonoscopy may depend on the time of day it is performed. According to a new UCLA study, early-morning colonoscopies yielded more polyps per patient than later screenings, and fewer polyps were found hour by hour as the day progressed. The findings, published in the November issue of the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, point to the need for more research in this area to possibly improve outcomes for colonoscopy procedures.

GASTRO 2009 is the first joint world conference for gastroenterology and offers journalists the opportunity to obtain first hand expert information on the latest gastroenterology research and issues affecting the world today.

GastroFISH? is the first tissue-based fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) test for the detection of chromosomal anomalies associated with colon cancer. "We are excited to be the first laboratory to offer GastroFISH for the colon. Using current histological techniques, identifying adenomas with a high risk for progression to cancer is not possible.

High-definition (HD) colonoscopy is much more sensitive than standard colonoscopy in finding polyps that could morph into cancer, say researchers at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida.

High-definition (HD) colonoscopy is much more sensitive than standard colonoscopy in finding polyps that could morph into cancer, say researchers at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida.

Drawing on years of experience in cancer research and patient care, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have just released the most comprehensive, risk-based screening guidelines publicly available to date for breast, cervical and colorectal cancers. The new recommendations represent the first wave of an effort by M. D.

Researchers from Taiwan report in a new study that unsedated colonoscopy for primary colorectal cancer screening is well accepted in a majority of patients. Sedation is typically used for colonoscopy to make the patient feel comfortable during the procedure. In Taiwan, colonoscopy is performed less frequently than sigmoidoscopy for colorectal cancer screening due to concerns over cost and availability.

A Henry Ford Hospital study questions the need for aggressive screening for colonic polyps in patients with diverticulosis. The study sought to determine if asymptomatic patients with diverticular disease are at higher or lower risk for developing colonic polyps, abnormal growths found in the wall of the colon that sometimes become cancerous.

Recent advances in colonoscopic technology are featured in a number of studies presented at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology this week. In this research some technologies fare better than others at improving detection of potentially pre-cancerous growths in the colon known as adenomas.

While there is little doubt concerning the effectiveness of colonoscopy procedures to detect colon cancer, a new study presented at the American College of Gastroenterology's 74th Annual Scientific Meeting in San Diego places new emphasis on the importance of adequate bowel preparation prior to procedure.

Although alcohol consumption has been linked to colon and breast cancer, exactly how this occurs remains unclear. A new study has found that epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) - which is essential for numerous developmental processes - may also be a cellular pathway by which alcohol-induced cancer cells aggressively progress and metastasize.

In a review article published this month in The Oncologist, UNC's Dr. Richard M. Goldberg and a team of colleagues catalogue how the data collected in a single large comparative clinical trial testing combination chemotherapy for metastatic colorectal cancer has been used not only to benefit the patients that enrolled but also patients who subsequently developed the disease.

Recent advances in colonoscopic technology are featured in a number of studies presented at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology this week. In this research some technologies fare better than others at improving detection of potentially pre-cancerous growths in the colon known as adenomas.

Three studies presented this week at the American College of Gastroenterology's 74th Annual Scientific meeting in San Diego underscore the growing disparities in gastrointestinal disease, particularly colon cancer and Barrett's Esophagus, among certain ethnic and gender populations, including African Americans, Latinos and women.

African Americans are at significantly higher risk of developing colorectal cancer, and being diagnosed with the disease at a later stage, than other ethnic groups. That's the finding of a paper being presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology in San Diego. Robert Wong, M.D.

Cancer cells fueled by the mutant KRAS oncogene, which makes them notoriously difficult to treat, can be killed by blocking a more vulnerable genetic partner of KRAS, report scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.

Current research suggests that latent cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection may exacerbate inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The related report by Onyeagocha et al, "Latent cytomegalovirus infection exacerbates experimental colitis," appears in the November 2009 issue of The American Journal of Pathology. CMV infects between 50% and 80% of adults in the United States.

As Washington policymakers debated health care reform on weekend talk shows, 48 people who are out of work or without health insurance received free colonoscopy screenings at Gastrointestinal Associates (GIA) here. More than half of the group at the first "GIA Screening Colonoscopy Day" had polyps removed. One was Gloria Hutchison, 60, a Knoxville woman with no health insurance. "I saw the sign at The Free Medical Clinic and knew I should do it," Hutchison said.

Drugs made using unusual metals could form an effective treatment against colon and ovarian cancer, including cancerous cells that have developed immunity to other drugs, according to research at the University of Warwick and the University of Leeds.

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) are involved in the carcinogenesis of many malignancies. Therapeutic molecules targeting EGFR and HER2 have been successfully used for the treatment of colorectal, breast, lung and head and neck cancers among others. It is unknown if EGFR and HER2 are overexpressed in advanced biliary tract cancer (BTC) and therefore may serve as therapeutic targets in these cancers.

Readmission to a hospital after standard surgical treatment for colon cancer is far more common than suspected for elderly patients according to researchers who presented their findings at the 2009 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons.

A set of 87 genes one day may be used to routinely determine which patients can be successfully treated for advanced rectal cancer without undergoing a surgical procedure, researchers announced at the 2009 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons.

As part of the $5 billion in grants announced by President Obama, the National Institutes of Health has granted Kaiser Permanente more than $54 million over two years through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to conduct health research on a multitude of critical public and clinical health areas. The bulk of this research will utilize and leverage Kaiser Permanente's electronic health records, the world's largest civilian electronic health record database.