Cancer Research

In Current Biology, Instituto Gubenkian de Ciencia researchers say they have provided insight into an old mystery in cell biology- and maybe it will offer up new clues to understanding cancer. Inês Cunha Ferreira and Mónica Bettencourt Dias, working with researchers at the universities of Cambridge, UK, and Siena, Italy, say they have unravelled the mystery of how cells count the number of centrosomes, the structure that regulates the cell's skeleton and controls the multiplication of cells, and is often transformed in cancer. This research addresses an ancient question: how does a cell know…

A team of researchers at Princeton University and The Cancer Institute of New Jersey has identified a long-sought gene that is fatefully switched on in 30 to 40 percent of all breast cancer patients, spreading the disease, resisting traditional chemotherapies and eventually leading to death. The gene, called "Metadherin" or MTDH, is located in a small region of human chromosome 8 and appears to be crucial to cancer's spread or metastasis because it helps tumor cells stick tightly to blood vessels in distant organs. The gene also makes tumors more resistant to the powerful chemotherapeutic…

Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies say they have developed a new mouse model of glioblastoma, the most common and deadly brain cancer in humans, that more closely resembles the development and progression of human brain tumors that arise in people.  Trying to mimic randomly occurring mutations that lie at the heart of all tumors, the Salk researchers used modified viruses to shuttle cancer-causing oncogenes into a handful of cells in adult mice. Their strategy, described in Nature Medicine, could prove a useful method to faithfully reproduce different types of…

While examining patterns of DNA modification in lung cancer, a team of international researchers has discovered what they say is a surprising new mechanism. They say that "silencing" of a single gene in lung cancer led to a general impairment in genome-wide changes in cells, contributing to cancer development and progression. In the Cancer Research study they also say they found a link between modification of the key gene, MTHFR, and smoking by lung cancer patients – even if the patient had smoked for a short period of time.  The findings reinforce smoking's link to lung cancer…

New research in an animal model suggests that a diet high in inorganic phosphates, which are found in a variety of processed foods including meats, cheeses, beverages, and bakery products, might speed growth of lung cancer tumors and may even contribute to the development of those tumors in individuals predisposed to the disease. The study also suggests that dietary regulation of inorganic phosphates may play an important role in lung cancer treatment. The research, using a mouse model, was conducted by Myung-Haing Cho, D.V.M., Ph.D., and his colleagues at Seoul National University, appears…

Scientists at The Babraham Institute have begun to unpick the complex mechanisms underpinning the development of drug resistant cancers. They have identified a novel target that may help to combat the growing problem of therapy resistant cancers and pave the way for innovative therapeutic approaches.  Their discovery, reported in the latest edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, centres on the significance of DNA damage for both normal cells and cancer cells. It reveals that a biochemical signalling pathway, that normally ensures damaged cells are diverted towards cellular…

Women should go for the broccoli when the relish tray comes around during holiday celebrations this season. While it has been known for some time that eating cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage, can help prevent breast cancer, the mechanism by which the active substances in these vegetables inhibit cell proliferation was unknown — until now. Scientists in the UC Santa Barbara laboratories of Leslie Wilson, professor of biochemistry and pharmacology, and Mary Ann Jordan, adjunct professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, have…

A study published today in Anticancer Research demonstrates that an ingredient used in a common cough suppressant may be useful in treating advanced prostate cancer. Researchers found that noscapine, which has been used in cough medication for nearly 50 years, reduced tumor growth in mice by 60% and limited the spread of tumors by 65% without causing harmful side effects. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in the United States. The American Cancer Society estimates that 186,320 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2008 and 28,660 will die from it. One man in 6 will…

You can't stop cancer.   The nature of mutations is that they aren't predictable so they can't be vaccinated against or prevented in any way we understand those terms today.   Stopping cancer from killing people is another matter.   Metastasis is the ability of cancer cells to move from a primary site to form more tumors at distant sites and it's how cancer spreads and eventually kills. It is a complex process in which cell motility and invasion play a fundamental role. Essential to our understanding of how metastasis develops is identification of the molecules, and…

A possible new therapeutic target for pancreatic cancer, the most lethal form of human cancer, has been identified in the proteins whose DNA recipe comes from the gene named "Seven-In-Absentia," according to researchers at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 48th Annual Meeting, Dec. 13-17, 2008 in San Francisco. In their studies with Drosophila melanogaster at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Minnesota, scientists found a link between the "Seven-In-Absentia" or SINA gene and the aggressive cellular transformation, oncogenesis and metastasis that characterize pancreatic cancer…