Cancer Research

Bacteria that thrive in oxygen starved environments have been used successfully to target cancer tumors, delivering gene therapy based anti-cancer treatments, according to scientists. For about half of cancer sufferers traditional treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy are ineffective, so alternative techniques are being developed to target their tumors. “To target a tumour with gene therapy you need three things. You need to be able to distinguish the tumour from its surrounding healthy tissue. You need to identify a therapeutic gene which will treat the problem. And you need some…

It's unclear if vitamin C supplements reduce cancer risk. They may actually increase it. Fat in the stomach may cause vitamin C to promote, rather than prevent, the formation of certain cancer causing chemicals, reveals research published ahead of print in the journal Gut. The researchers analysed the impact of both fat (lipid) and vitamin C (ascorbic acid) on nitrite chemistry in the upper (proximal) stomach, which is especially vulnerable to pre-cancerous changes and tumor growth. Nitrites, which are present in human saliva, and in certain preserved foodstuffs, may be converted to cancer…

Scientists have found monoclonal antibodies which may make a successful Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) vaccine a reality. Hepatitis treatment is expensive and only successful in half of patients. Untreated or unresponsive patients can go on to develop cirrhosis of the liver, with life affecting consequences or the need for a transplant. In a collaborative effort with groups across Europe and the USA, scientists from Nottingham University have recently identified antibodies that can successfully prevent infection with many diverse strains of Hepatitis C virus in laboratory models. “The clinical…

Nutrients taken from avocados are able to thwart oral cancer cells, killing some and preventing pre-cancerous cells from developing into actual cancers, according to researchers at Ohio State University. Researchers found that extracts from Hass avocados kill or stop the growth of pre-cancerous cells that lead to oral cancer. Hass avocados are year-round fruits known for their distinctive bumpy skin that turns from green to purplish-black as they ripen. While there are more than 500 varieties of avocados grown worldwide, Hass avocados are the most readily available at supermarkets…

Using a new “genome-scanning” method, a team of scientists has identified the first robust link between genes and stature in humans. A single letter change in a gene called HMGA2 enables people who carry it to gain as much as a centimeter in height. The work provides insights into how genes hardwire growth in humans and suggests that finding additional height-related genes may be feasible. It became clear nearly a century ago that many genes likely influence how tall a person grows, though little progress, if any, has followed in defining the myriad genes. Now an international research team…

How do adult stem cells protect themselves from accumulating genetic mutations that can lead to cancer? For more than three decades, many scientists have argued that the "immortal strand hypothesis" - which states that adult stem cells segregate their DNA in a non-random manner during cell division -- explains it. And several recent reports have presented evidence backing the idea. But now University of Michigan stem cell researcher Sean Morrison and his colleagues say they have dealt a mortal blow to the immortal strand, at least as far as blood-forming stem cells are concerned. They…

Combining radiation therapy with a drug that helps destroy blood vessels nourishing malignant tumors has been shown in mice to be significantly more effective in treating lung cancer than either approach alone, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found. The study, involving human lung-cancer cells implanted in mice, appears in the Sept. 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research. In the study, Dr. Philip Thorpe, professor of pharmacology at UT Southwestern, and his colleagues found that radiation generates a chemical reaction in the membranes of endothelial cells, which line the…

Studying the DNA of 889 people, gene hunters at the Mayo Clinic and H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Centers have identified a region on chromosome 5p that is significantly associated with dense breast tissue, a known risk factor for breast cancer. The findings, published in the September 1 issue of Cancer Research, a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, suggest that genes which influence breast density could serve as a predictive marker for disease and provide a biological target for agents that may reduce breast cancer risk by reducing breast density. Women with dense breasts…

Expect to see a lot of headlines like "Get drunk, stay cancer free" from science sites that shoot for headlines rather than fact after a university study showed a compound in red wine may help reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer.. The plain truth is the anti-oxidant compound in red wine, resveratrol, is also found in grapes, raspberries, peanuts and blueberries. You can still get drunk, but it isn't necessary. Male mice in the study were fed resveratrol and showed an 87 percent reduction in their risk of developing prostate tumors that contained the worst kind of cancer-staging…

Only about a fifth of the genes in a cell are switched on at any given time but environmental changes such as smoking lead to changes in that genetic activity. According to a Canadian team led by Wan L. Lam and Stephen Lam from the British Columbia Cancer Research Centre, smoking introduces some changes that are irreversible. Reversible changes were in xenobiotic functions( managing chemicals not produced in the body ), nucleotide metabolism and mucus secretion but some genes, such as GSK3B that are important in cell survival, are irreversibly damaged by smoking, and smoking also switched…