Current areas of research involve cell growth, hemotropic and infectious diseases, ocular diseases, breast cancer, prostate development, immunopathology, and cardiovascular diseases.
Otherobesity-related changes in the production ofhormones, such asinsulin, insulin-likegrowthfactororleptin, mayalso beinvolved in the development of more aggressiveprostate cancer.
The researchers said these drugs may delay or stop development of an enlarged prostate.
VOA: special.2010.12.14
The study, by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, focused on the effects of stress on prostate cancer, and found that stress can both reduce the effectiveness of prostate cancer drugs and accelerate the development of the cancer.
Aided by a 13-center research consortium group funded by the Defense Department and the Prostate Cancer Foundation and intended to speed development of medicines for the disease, researchers ultimately and rapidly enrolled 140 patients, with promising results.
Cyclopamine, it turns out, blocks the function of a gene called Sonic hedgehog that is essential for embryonic development but also plays a lead role in causing deadly cancers of the pancreas, skin, prostate and esophagus.