Cancer Research

Ottawa, Ontario (January 2012)- With the successful implementation of personalized cancer medicine in France, Canada is now following suit with a $67.5 million investment to support personalized medicine. According to the CIHR press release, Harper's investment appears to be geared towards developing personalized medicine not only for cancer, but also for a wide range of diseases including cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, psychiatric disorder, diabetes, obestiy, arthritis, pain and Alzheimer's disease. By using molecular profiling to match patients with the…

Regular consumption of deep-fried foods like chicken, french fries and doughnuts has been associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer by investigators at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Previous studies have suggested that eating foods made with high-heat cooking methods, like grilled meat, may increase the risk of prostate cancer but this is the first one to implicate deep frying to cancer. Janet L. Stanford, Ph.D., co-director of the Hutchinson Center's Program in Prostate Cancer Research, and colleagues found that men who reported eating french fries, fried chicken, fried…

About ten percent of all cases of malignant melanoma are familial cases. The genome of affected families tells scientists a lot about how the disease develops. Prof. Dr. Rajiv Kumar of the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) together with Prof. Dr. Dirk Schadendorf from Essen University Hospital studied a family where 14 family members were affected by malignant melanoma. They analyzed the genomes of family members and found an identical mutation in the gene for telomerase, an enzyme often called 'immortality enzyme', in all persons studied. Telomerase…

In a genome-wide analysis of 13 metastatic prostate cancers done on men who died of metastatic prostate cancer and whose tissue samples were collected after a rapid autopsy, scientists found consistent epigenetic signatures across all metastatic tumors in each patient.  The discovery of stable epigenetic marks that sit on the nuclear DNA of cancer cells and alter gene expression, defies a prevailing belief that the marks vary so much within each individual's widespread cancers that they have little or no value as targets for therapy or as biomarkers for treatment response and predicting…

Studies by Ding et al (Cell 2012) revealed that telomerase dysfunction early in disease onset creates genomic aberrations crucial for telomerase-driven prostate cancer metastasis into the lumbar spine.  Using a murine prostate cancer model driven by PTEN/P53 deletions, the authors discovered that while telomerase-dysfunction appears to hinder prostate adenocarcinoma initiation, telomerase reactivation at 24 weeks resulted in prostate cancer metastasis into the lumbar spine. In contrast, PTEN/P53-deleted animals with intact TERT activity (constant throughout life) supported…

Live imaging technology is becoming an increasing popular tool to visualize real-time cellular events in the tumor microenvironment during metastatic progression. In the AACR 2012 symposium entitled, “Immune Cell Function and Cancer In Vivo: Visualizing Friends and Foes”, there were two remarkable presentations showing stunning real-time revelations on the role of immune cells in cancer.  First, Dr. John Condeelis used multiphoton microscopy in a mammary imaging window to monitor macrophage and tumor cell interactions in a metastatic mouse PYMT breast cancer…

McCormick Place- Chicago, IL, March 31st- April 4th 2012- was flocked with scientists across the world for the Annual American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting. As with each year, the meeting featured endless plenary presentations, symposiums, as well as poster sessions and exhibitions that covered exciting advancements and technologies in the global effort to end cancer. Much like Chicago's beautiful cityscape with the harmonious mixture of old and new buildings, this year's AACR meeting can be described as a harmonious mixture of new and old research concepts. A new "buzz" in…

“Personalized medicine! What is that?” Your question is justified.  It was also something that Terry Procter from Peterborough, Ontario thought when he was sent a questionnaire for his opinion on the subject. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had his prostate removed in 2007. So, what is personalized medicine and what is the connection to cancer? Personalized medicine is treatment specific for a patient based on his or her genetic makeup. It doesn’t involve designing a new drug or use of exclusive technology for each individual patient. Instead, with the knowledge of a patient’…

Wilms' tumors, a type of cancer typically found in the kidneys of young children, might have a new weapon against them. A new therapeutic approach that one day might be used to treat some of the more aggressive types of this disease could be possible now that  scientists have isolated cancer stem cells that lead to the growth of the tumors. Wilms' tumors are the most prevalent type of tumor found in the kidneys of children. While many patients respond well if the tumors are removed early by surgery and if patients are given chemotherapy, recurrences may occur and the cancer can spread to…

An new American Cancer Society analysis found a strong inverse association between coffee and oral/pharyngeal cancer mortality. Real coffee, not that decaffeinated stuff. The authors say people who drank more than four cups of coffee per day were at about half the risk of death of these often fatal cancers compared to those who only occasionally or who never drank coffee. Previous epidemiologic studies have suggested that coffee intake is associated with reduced risk of oral/pharyngeal cancer so researchers examined associations of caffeinated coffee, decaffeinated coffee, and tea intake with…