News digest – kidney cancer rise, EU vote on tobacco control, ‘urine test technology’ and more

• Our latest statistics show that the number of people being diagnosed with kidney cancer has increased by 30 per cent in the last decade. The Information Daily and our press release have more info.
• The European Parliament voted “yes” on tough new anti-tobacco measures this week. For details see coverage from the BBC and The Telegraph.
• US scientists developed an interesting piece of new technology that could spot bowel cancer in mice from a urine sample. The researchers believe it could be developed into a simple paper test – similar to that used in home pregnancy testing – and could be of huge benefit in the developing world where access to established cancer testing can be limited. See coverage in New Scientist and Wired for more info.
• Research Fortnight covered a report we commissioned to evaluate cancer surgery across the UK. You can read more about the report in this blog post.
• High levels of a tumour protein called leptin could be used to predict which oesophageal cancer patients are less likely to respond to chemotherapy treatment. See the press release for more details.
• Early research from the US showed that an important molecule – called beta catenin – could be triggering some immune cells to promote inflammation and bowel cancer growth. MedicalXpress has more details.
• New Scientist covered some early stage research from an Australian conference showing that common changes in how pancreatic cancer cells use energy could offer a new window to target the disease in the future. It’s very early days, but this work highlights some of the ways scientists are searching for common faults that could lead to more effective treatments.

And finally

• By using your smartphone’s processing power while you sleep, a new app hopes to coordinate a vast supercomputer-like network to help process cancer research data. The Telegraph and Wired have more info and you can read about our own efforts to enlist the power of the public in this blog post about our Genes in Space smartphone game or by visiting our Cell Slider project.

Nick