Cancer Research

The National Cancer Institute says 200,000 American women will get breast cancer this year and 20% will die from the disease. A lumpectomy is a common treatment but up to 40 percent of women see the cancer return, a number that is reduced to about 10 percent with radiation of the (whole) breast. But between 2001 and 2006 partial-breast treatments, brachytherapy, went up 1000% - despite real evidence it works. How did it increase then?   Because the FDA approved a device to deliver the radiation in 2002 and Medicare began reimbursement in 2004.    "It brings to the front the…

In a new study, cancer biologists show that restoring the protein p53's function in mice with early lung cancer has no effect in tumor development but restoring p53 function later may prevent more advanced tumors from spreading throughout the body.  Cancer researchers have known since the 1980s that p53 plays a critical role in protecting cells from becoming cancerous and P53 is defective in about half of all human cancers; when it functions correctly, it appears to suppress tumor formation by preventing cells with cancer-promoting mutations from reproducing. Knowing p53's critical role…

“Extraordinary measures” is a heart-wrenching movie about a parent’s quest to save the lives of two dying children with Pompe disease. Starring Brandon Fraser (John Crowley) as the venture capitalist fathering the two children, and Harrison Ford (Robert Stonehill) as the aloof researcher with the science to curing Pompe, the story beautifully illustrates the many difficulties and challenges behind transforming basic science into a usable drug. Despite the financial risks, setbacks, frustration and tears, Crowley manages to orchestrate an incredible research effort to save his children,…

Researchers have hit on a new way to create a personalized vaccine - an immune response against their own tumors using the tumor itself. This dendritic cell (DC) vaccine was used after surgical resection of metastatic tumors to try to prevent the growth of additional metastases.  Dendritic cells are critical to the human body's immune system, helping identify targets, or antigens, and then stimulating the immune system to react against those antigens. The new research grew dendritic cells from a sample of a patient's blood, mixed them with proteins from the patient's tumor, and then…

James Watson, co-discoverer of DNA’s double-helix structure recently called for a back to basics approach in dealing with cancer.  In previous post threads I’ve discussed cancer’s complexity and in particular the confounding and scary implications of somatic evolution, which underscores some of the reasons we are not winning the “war on cancer.”  Here I will discuss some cutting edge approaches to treating and preventing cancer and how they might pan out in light of the complexities of the disease.  The categories below are not mutually exclusive, and the…

Many people would admit to not understanding cancer well, but fewer people would admit to not understanding evolution well.  Here are some challenges to our understanding of both. Starvation may help cancer treatment. “As little as 48 hours of starvation afforded mice injected with brain cancer cells the ability to endure and benefit from extremely high doses of chemotherapy that non-starved mice could not survive.” Cancer is evolution in action.  This isn’t a surprise to most researchers these days, but it is to the general public.  Very simply, the cells in your body are…

Cancer treatment has reached a stage where we have begun to realize that same hat can not fit everybody's head. Genetic mismatches at the nucleic-acid level, known as point mutations vary from person to person, calling for the need of 'personalized-medicine' concept.In a work to be presented today scientists use a technology that can identify genetic make up of a person's cancer cells, by determining point mutations in 100 known oncogenes. This will give a 'genetic footprint' of that particular population of cancer cells. Having this footprint will increase the chances of finding the right…

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in both men and women in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute.   But since cancer is a mutation, risk factors for it can never be eliminated.   However, risk factors can be made less risky so a group of researchers built on previous research that found black raspberries have antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-neurodegenerative and anti-inflammatory properties to see if they might also help to prevent colon cancer. Their study found that black raspberries were highly…

Sipuleucel-T (Provenge) was the first therapeutic cancer vaccine to be approved by the FDA for Prostate cancers. Sipuleucel-T consists of Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) including Antigen presenting cells (APCs) was developed by Dendreon. The APCs that have been activated for a definite period in cell culture with recombinant protein containing Prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) and Granuocyle macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF). PAP is expressed in 95% of prostate cancers. GM-CSF is an immune cell activator. The recombinant protein charges the APCs resulting…

Can skin cancer be treated with light? Scientists from the University of California, Irvine say they can treat skin cancer with light - the ability to image cancerous lesions using LEDs might advance a technique for treating cancer called photodynamic therapy (PDT). In PDT, photosensitizing chemicals that absorb light are injected into a tumor, which is then exposed to light. The chemicals generate oxygen radicals from the light energy, destroying the cancer cells. PDT is currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of esophageal and lung cancer. Rolf…