Barrow researchers successfully destroy brain tumor cells
December 3, 2012 by admin · Leave a Comment
A team of brain cancer researchers at Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center has effectively treated brain tumor cells using a unique combination of diet and radiation therapy. The study, “The Ketogenic Diet Is an Effective Adjuvant to Radiation Therapy for the Treatment of Malignant Glioma,” was published in PLOS ONE
Led by Adrienne C. Scheck, PhD, Principal Investigator in Neuro-Oncology and Neurosurgery Research at Barrow, the groundbreaking research studied the effects of the ketogenic diet in conjunction with radiation therapy for the treatment of malignant gliomas, an aggressive and deadly type of brain tumor. The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that alters metabolism and is used in the treatment of pediatric epilepsy that does not respond to conventional therapies. The diet’s affects on brain homeostasis have potential for the treatment of other neurological diseases, as well.
Potential new technique for anticancer radiotherapy could provide alternative to brachytherapy
November 15, 2012 by admin · Leave a Comment
A promising new approach to treating solid tumors with radiation was highly efficacious and minimally toxic to healthy tissue in a mouse model of cancer, according to data published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
New anti-tumor cell therapy strategies are more effective
October 25, 2012 by admin · Leave a Comment
Targeted T-cells can seek out and destroy tumor cells that carry specific antigen markers. Two novel anti-tumor therapies that take advantage of this T-cell response are described in articles published in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The articles are available free on the Human Gene Therapy website at http://www.liebertpub.com/hum.
Barrow researchers make breakthrough on immune system and brain tumors
September 26, 2012 by admin · Leave a Comment
In what could be a breakthrough in the treatment of deadly brain tumors, a team of researchers from Barrow Neurological Institute and Arizona State University has discovered that the immune system reacts differently to different types of brain tissue, shedding light on why cancerous brain tumors are so difficult to treat.
New surgical technique for removing inoperable tumors of the abdomen
April 30, 2012 by admin · Leave a Comment
Abdominal tumors involving both roots of the celiac and superior mesenteric artery (SMA) are deemed unresectable by conventional surgical methods, as removal would cause necrosis of the organs that are supplied by those blood vessels.
Blasting cancer from the inside out
Even when surgical tumor removal is combined with a heavy dose of chemotherapy or radiation, there’s no guarantee that the cancer will not return. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University are strengthening the odds in favor of permanent tumor destruction — and an immunity to the cancer’s return — with a new method of tumor removal.
Newest cancer therapies multi-task to eliminate tumors
September 15, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Some of the newest therapies in the war on cancer remove the brakes cancer puts on the immune system, Georgia Health Sciences University researchers report.
These immunotherapies, such as CTLA4, strengthen the immune system’s attack on cancer by keeping apart two proteins that prevent key immune cells called T cells from activating.
Researchers report new understanding of role of telomeres in tumor growth
August 31, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
The first report of the presence of alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) in cancers arising from the bladder, cervix, endometrium, esophagus, gallbladder, liver, and lung was published today in The American Journal of Pathology. The presence of ALT in carcinomas can be used as a diagnostic marker and has implications for the development of anti-cancer drug therapies.
Inhibiting key enzymes kills difficult tumor cells in mice
August 14, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Tumors that do not respond to chemotherapy are the target of a cancer therapy that prevents the function of two enzymes in mouse tumor cells, according to Pennsylvania medical researchers.
“We’ve known for well over a decade that when tumors become hypoxic they become resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy,” said Wafik S. El-Deiry, M.D. Ph.D., American Cancer Society Research Professor, Rose Dunlap Professor and chief of hematology/oncology, Penn State College of Medicine. “This is a huge problem in the treatment of patients with cancer. As tumors progress, they have regions that are not well perfused with blood vessels and tumors become hypoxic.”
Researchers gain new insights into how tumor cells are fed
August 7, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Shows promise for development of anti-tumor drugs
Philadelphia, PA, August 8, 2011 – Researchers have gained a new understanding of the way in which growing tumors are fed and how this growth can be slowed via angiogenesis inhibitors that eliminate the blood supply to tumors. This represents a step forward towards developing new anti-cancer drug therapies. The results of this study have been published today in the September issue of The American Journal of Pathology.
