Washington, Apr 2 : A research team, including an Indian-origin boffin, has suggested that radiation treatment directly to the ovaries should be avoided in female cancer patients of reproductive age because there is a direct relationship between certain types of radiation therapy and fertility problems.

Radiation therapy to the pelvic region can cause ovarian failure or result in damage that makes the uterus unable to accommodate the growth of a foetus.

These effects are not a great concern to cancer patients past their reproductive years, but due to the growing number of paediatric and young-adult cancer survivors, these effects are increasingly relevant.

Washington, Apr 2 : A new study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center has found that head and neck cancer patients who smoke, drink, don't exercise or don't eat enough fruit have worse survival outcomes than those with better health habits.

"While there has been a recent emphasis on biomarkers and genes that might be linked to cancer survival, the health habits a person has at diagnosis play a major role in his or her survival," said study author Sonia Duffy, Ph. D., R. N., associate professor of nursing at the U-M School of Nursing, research assistant professor of otolaryngology at the U-M Medical School, and research scientist at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.

Washington, April 2 : Cannabinoids such as the main active component of marijuana (THC) have anticancer effects on human brain cancer cells, a new study has found.

In the study, Guillermo Velasco and colleagues at Complutense University, Spain, found that THC induced the death of various human brain cancer cell lines and primary cultured human brain cancer cells by a process known as autophagy.

Consistent with the in vitro data, administration of THC to mice with human tumours decreased tumour growth and induced the tumour cells to undergo autophagy.

New York  - Research In Motion (RIM) Ltd has opened an online software store for its BlackBerry phones as it seeks to take on Apple Inc, the pioneer of the trend.

The online store opened Wednesday and is initially available to customers in the United States, Canada and Britain.

BlackBerry App World would offer about 1,000 programs in its first week, including games, music applications, Facebook, Myspace and transmissions from the Bloomberg financial news agency, The New York Times and the music channel MTV.

Washington, Apr 2: Researchers from UC Davis Cancer Centre have identified a protein that may allow breast cancer to spread and make it resistant to drugs.

The research team led by Kermit Carraway have discovered a protein called Muc4, which belongs to a group of proteins called mucins, commonly found in fluids such as tears and mucus.

"Breast cancer deaths are caused by metastasis, not by the primary tumour," said Carraway.

Washington, Apr 2 : A new study from University of Cambridge has provided new evidence that the human brain lives "on the edge of chaos", at a critical transition point between randomness and order.

The researchers claim to have identified a mechanism called self-organized criticality, where systems spontaneously organize themselves to operate at a critical point between order and randomness.

This phenomenon might occur from complex interactions in many different physical systems, including avalanches, forest fires, earthquakes, and heartbeat rhythms.