Cancer Research

While America moves toward an egalitarian approach to medical care, another study has found that the quality of cares matters in things like advanced head and neck cancers. The paper in Cancer says that patients who were treated at hospitals that saw a high number of head and neck cancers were 15 percent less likely to die of their disease as compared to patients who were treated at hospitals that saw a relatively low number. The study also found that such patients were 12 percent less likely to die of their disease when treated at a National Cancer Institute -designated cancer center.…

Preclinical, laboratory studies suggest immunotherapy could potentially work like a vaccine against metastatic cancers. Results from the recent study show the therapy could treat metastatic cancers and be used in combination with current cancer therapies while helping to prevent the development of new metastatic tumors and train specialized immune system cells to guard against cancer relapse. The study detailed the effects of a molecule engineered by lead author Xiang-Yang Wang, Ph.D., of Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center, on animal and cell models of melanoma, prostate…

A lifelong diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids can inhibit growth of breast cancer tumors by 30 percent, according to new research published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, which they say is the first to provide unequivocal evidence that omega-3s reduce cancer risk. Breast cancer remains the most common form of cancer in women worldwide and is the second leading cause of female cancer deaths. Advocates have long believed diet may significantly help in preventing cancer but epidemiological and experimental studies to back up such claims have been lacking, and human studies have been…

Researchers have discovered that many women with low-grade serous carcinoma of the ovary or peritoneum have seen their tumors stabilize or shrink after taking a regular dose of the compound selumetinib, according to a paper in The Lancet Oncology which show that selumetinib targets a mutation in the MAPK pathway for patients with low-grade serous carcinoma, allowing for treatment on previously chemoresistant tumors. "This is a potentially important breakthrough for the Gynecologic Oncology Group," said first author John Farley, MD, a gynecologic oncologist at St. Joseph's Hospital.  …

Researchers employing an extensive analysis of genomic information have identified micro RNA 506 (miR-506) as a potential therapeutic candidate for advanced or metastatic ovarian cancer situations. This high-risk cohort of ovarian cancer patients can be tested in mouse models of the disease to try and find better treatments.  Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic cancer in the United States, with an estimated 22,280 cases diagnosed in 2012 and 15,460 deaths. Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed at an advanced stage and it also has greater capacity to spread than most other…

In a new paper,  researchers assess the complete landscape of a cancer's kinome expression and determine which kinases are acting up in a particular tumor.  Since the proteins are relatively easy to target with drugs and plenty of kinase inhibitors already exist, the work shows that those particular kinases can be targeted with drugs and can even lead to potentially combining multiple drugs to target multiple kinases.  The researchers looked at RNA sequencing data from 482 samples of both cancerous and non-cancerous tissue and identified the most highly expressed kinases in…

Like blood vessels that supply oxygen and nutrients to normal tissue, tumor blood vessels were originally thought to do likewise to fuel tumor growth. As scientists developed strategies to kill tumors by cutting off their blood supply, they soon discovered their valiant efforts were thwarted by the tumor's ability to quickly recover. The recovery is caused by a population of tumor-initiating cancer cells dubbed the cancer stem cells (CSCs); a population that can communicate with blood vessels via the Notch signaling pathway to drive tumor vascularization. It turns out that this "Notch"…

Myeloma treatments require a heavy artillery of novel myeloma drugs to reduce the number of cancer cells (ex: Revlimid, Velcade, or Thalomid), followed by high-dose chemotherapy to wipe out the cancer. Because the latter can completely wipe out blood-forming stem cells (a side effect that can be life-threatening to the patient), clinicians quickly learned to collect patient stem cells right before high-dose chemotherapy, and then transplanting them back into patients after treatment. The feasibility of this approach depends on the effects of myeloma drugs on patient stem cells. In contrast…

Biologists have discovered a bioelectric signal that can identify cells that are likely to develop into tumors. The researchers also found that they could lower the incidence of cancerous cells by manipulating the electrical charge across cells' membranes.  Bioelectric signals underlie an important set of control mechanisms that regulate how cells grow and multiply. The study investigated the bioelectric properties of cells that develop into tumors in Xenopus laevis frog embryos.  In previous research, it was found that manipulating membrane voltage can influence or regulate…

While there are many proposed “magic bullets” since the 1940s to combat cancer, more than 90% of these drug candidates fail during clinical trials. Part of the reason for this failure is because many drugs are often effective in eliminating only the bulk of the tumor without even touching the root of the disease. With the discovery of cancer stem cells as the root of cancer in the 1970s, scientists began developing therapeutics against cancer stem cells with hopes to eliminate cancer for good. Scientists are now a step closer to this feat. In a recent global collaborative effort lead by Dr…