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.
Potential new eye tumor treatment discovered
August 3, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Baltimore, MD New research from a team including several Carnegie scientists demonstrates that a specific small segment of RNA could play a key role in the growth of a type of malignant childhood eye tumor called retinoblastoma. The tumor is associated with mutations of a protein called Rb, or retinoblastoma protein. Dysfunctional Rb is also involved with other types of cancers, including lung, brain, breast and bone. Their work, which will be the cover story of the August 15th issue of Genes & Development, could result in a new therapeutic target for treating this rare form of cancer and potentially other cancers as well.
New strategy to attack tumor-feeding blood vessels
June 5, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have discovered a key molecule needed to kill the blood vessels that supply tumours.
The research team from the institute’s Molecular Genetics of Cancer and Cancer and Haematology divisions found that for anti-cancer therapies that target tumour blood vessels to work the death- inducing molecule Bim is required. The finding could lead to improved anti-cancer treatments that are based on a two- or three-pronged attack on both the tumour and its blood supply. The research will be published online in the Journal of Experimental Medicine today.
New cancer drug discovered at U-M heads to clinical trials
March 28, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Study shows drug effectively shrank tumors, caused few side effects in animals
ANN ARBOR, Mich. Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a new drug called AT-406 with potential to treat multiple types of cancer.
PMH researchers create an organic nanoparticle that uses sound and heat to find and treat tumors
March 19, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
A team of scientists from Princess Margaret Hospital have created an organic nanoparticle that is completely non-toxic, biodegradable and nimble in the way it uses light and heat to treat cancer and deliver drugs. (A nanoparticle is a minute molecule with novel properties).
With new method, CSHL team is able to infer how tumors evolve and spread
March 12, 2011 by admin · Leave a Comment
Study of 2 breast cancer samples suggests tumors grow by ‘punctuated, clonal expansions’
Cold Spring Harbor, NY — A new method of analyzing cancerous tumors developed by scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) suggests that tumors may not evolve gradually, but rather in punctuated or staccato-like bursts. It is a finding that has already shed new light on the process of tumor growth and metastasis, and may help in the development of new methods to clinically evaluate tumors.
