Cancer Research

Twins, height Why twins have different eye colour or one suffer from a disease and other not inspite of having the same set of genes. Epigenetics explains the observed phenotypes to altered gene expression due to external factors. school text books The term ‘‘epigenetics’’ (literally means 'above the genes') was originally coined by Conrad Waddington in the 1940s to explain phenotypes produced due to interaction of genes with the environment without any alteration in the DNA sequence. Full understanding of epigenetics  is yet to be reached and hence, many definitions…

Too hot to grill outside?  Too cold?  Stuck in a New York City Restaurant?   Here is how you pan fry a steak.  Put a bunch of salt and pepper on it, some butter too.  Heat an oven to 450 degrees.  Iron skillet too, as hot as you can get it on a stove. Once both are hot, throw the steak in there and disabled the smoke alarm. Cook it for two minutes or so, then flip it over, take it off the stove and stick the whole thing in the oven for maybe 6 minutes.   Result; a delicious pan-friend steak as good as anything as you will get in a restaurant; and up to a 40…

Researchers have linked mutations in specific genes to each of the four recognized subtypes of medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor of children. The discovery provides doctors with potential biomarkers for guiding and individualizing treatment and reveals prospective therapeutic opportunities for countering this devastating malignancy. Medulloblastomas occur in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls balance and other complex motor functions, and are treated with a combination of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Though overall survival hovers around 70…

A novel anticancer drug is designed to travel, undetected by normal cells, through the bloodstream until it becomes activated by specific cancer proteins.  It's basically a sleeper cell for tumors. The drug, called G202, is chemically derived from a common Mediterranean weed called Thapsia garganica, and has been shown to destroy cancers and their direct blood supplies, acting like a 'molecular grenade' but sparing healthy blood vessels and tissues.In laboratory studies, researchers said they found that a three-day course of G202 reduced the size of human prostate tumors grown…

Want to lower your risk of developing the most common form of skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma? Drink more coffee, says a new study.  Basal cell carcinoma is the form of skin cancer most commonly diagnosed in the United States. Even though it is slow-growing, it causes considerable morbidity and places a burden on health care systems. The researchers generated their results by conducting a prospective analysis of data from the Nurses' Health Study, a large and long-running study to aid in the investigation of factors influencing women's health, and the Health Professionals Follow-up…

Using 160 high-resolution tungsten leaves and dramatically faster leaf movement, Elekta’s new Agility multi-leaf collimator (MLC) radiation therapy treatment for cancer patients recently received 510(k) clearance (K121328) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), enabling U.S. medical centers to use it for patients with cancer. An MLC is device made up of numerous, individual tungsten “leaves,” which shape beams of therapeutic radiation that are delivered from different angles around the patient. Using twice the number of leaves typical of many standard MLC’s, Agility precisely…

Cancer is scary, right? One of the reasons that cancer is so viscerally frightening is that it is so tightly associated with death. But how does cancer actually kill a person? This may seem like an obvious question, but the answers were not so obvious even to me a cancer biologist and cancer survivor so I've done reading and it is actually quite interesting. I had prostate cancer, which was diagnosed 2 1/2 years ago. My doctors told me based on the histology of the cancer, that I had likely had that cancer for many years without even knowing it. They went on to tell me that even without any…

Researchers  have uncovered a new way to stimulate activity of immune cell opiate receptors, leading to efficient tumor cell clearance - their pharmacological approach can activate the immune cells to prevent cancer growth through stimulation of the opiate receptors found on immune cells. This work describes two structurally different but functionally similar opioid receptors, Mu- and Delta-opioid receptors. These receptors form protein complexes as either two structurally similar receptors as a homodimer (formed by two identical molecules) or two structurally dissimilar protein…

Among cancer deaths worldwide, lung cancer is the leader.  It isn't just the tumor cells, the growth of blood vessels controls tumors development and blood vessel growth is controlled by several signalling molecules. Scientists have discovered a molecule, phosphodiesterase PDE4, that plays a key role in this process and they have succeeded in reducing tumor growth in their experiments by blocking it. While lung cancer is commonly linked to smokers, it can also be caused by contact with carcinogenic substances like asbestos and then some random mutations just happen. Those affected by…

Prostate cancer is a type of cancer that starts in the prostate gland and usually occurs in older men. Recent data shows that about 1 in 36 men will die of prostate cancer. Estimated new cases and deaths from this disease condition in the US in 2012 alone are 241,740 and 28,170, respectively. Current treatment options for patients include surgery, radiation therapy, hormone therapy, chemotherapy, and immune therapy. Unfortunately, these are associated with considerable complications and/or severe side effects. Oregano, an herb commonly used in pasta and  pizza sauces, has long been known…