Vitamin A derivatives, drugs known as retinoids , have been used successfully to treat certain types of leukemia. Not all forms of the disease respond to them, though. Scientists have discovered that adding another medication may overcome this resistance.

Targeted drugs work by attacking and shutting down the molecular activities that keep cancers thriving and growing. These drugs have saved the lives of thousands of people with cancer. But they don't work in some people.

A long-term risk analysis of Hodgkin lymphoma patients shows that the traditional practice of using radiation together with chemotherapy may be too much, causing more problems without extending life expectancy.

Part of the process of developing and testing drugs involves seeing if treatments work in similar conditions, and science is full of surprises.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common type of childhood cancer, diagnosed in some 5,000 children every year in the United States.

The computational power available to researchers has grown exponentially over the years, allowing broad analysis of genetics involved in cancer to get new ideas for exploring new methods of therapy.

Several groups looking at data from broad genetic studies have noticed differences in cancer risk for different populations according to ethnic make up.

A project to sequence genetic mutations in a particularly aggressive form of childhood leukemia developed a list of common mutations - the first step in developing adequate pharmaceutical targeted therapy.

You've probably only heard of a handful of blood types, most simply designated with a letter such as A or O. In fact several other rare blood types exist. Scientists have now identified an additional two types, which could be life-saving for thousands of patients.

For some patients, sickle cell disease is a debilitating disease full of painful complications. Until recently it was tough to identify which patients were at risk for the most serious complications.