Tag Archives: faculty

Anderson algorithm increases surgical success with advanced ovarian cancer

The researchers describe the Anderson Algorithm in a perspective piece outlining a personalized surgical approach to ovarian cancer published online at Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology. “Our algorithm allows us to be much smarter about whom we operate on up front, providing a more individualized approach to surgery that’s led to better results for our patients,” said Anil Sood, M.D., professor of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine and senior author of the paper. The multi-step process was developed through MD Anderson’s Moon Shots Program, an ambitious effort launched in 2012 to dramatically reduce cancer deaths. Sood is co-leader of the Breast and Ovarian Cancer Moon Shot…

Clear new evidence for mind-body connection demonstrated in study

A group working out of Alberta Health Services’ Tom Baker Cancer Centre and the University of Calgary Department of Oncology has demonstrated that telomeres — protein complexes at the end of chromosomes — maintain their length in breast cancer survivors who practise meditation or are involved in support groups, while they shorten in a comparison group without any intervention. Although the disease-regulating properties of telomeres aren’t fully understood, shortened telomeres are associated with several disease states, as well as cell aging, while longer telomeres are thought to be protective against disease…

Boosting heart’s natural ability to recover after heart attack

This switch is driven by p53, the well-documented tumor-suppressing protein. The UNC researchers showed that increasing the level of p53 in scar-forming cells significantly reduced scarring and improved heart function after heart attack. The finding, which was published today in the journal Nature, shows that it is possible to limit the damage wrought by heart attacks, which strike nearly one million people in the United States each year. Heart disease accounts for one in four deaths every year…

Optimal particle size for anticancer nanomedicines discovered

“To develop next generation nanomedicines with superior anti-cancer attributes, we must understand the correlation between their physicochemical properties — specifically, particle size — and their interactions with biological systems,” explains Jianjun Cheng, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In a recent study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Cheng and his collaborators systematically evaluated the size-dependent biological profiles of three monodisperse drug-silica nanoconjugates at 20, 50 and 200 nm…

Down syndrome: Behind the scenes of genetics, leukemia

A group of geneticists working in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) focused for many years on the genetic characteristics of Down syndrome. They have sequenced the exome, a specific part of our genome, in a cohort of patients affected both by Down Syndrome and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (DS-ALL), a type of cancer relative to the cells of the immune system in the bone marrow. They were able to sketch an outline of the “genetic identity card” of this disease. They found that RAS, an important oncogene in many cancers, is involved in the tumorigenesis of one third of DS-ALL cases…

‘Normal’ bacteria vital for keeping intestinal lining intact

The research involved the intestinal microbiome, which contains some 100 trillion bacteria. The role of these microorganisms in promoting or preventing disease is a major emerging field of study. Einstein scientists found that absorption of a specific bacterial byproduct is crucial for maintaining the integrity of the intestinal epithelium — the single-cell layer responsible for keeping intestinal bacteria and their toxins inside the gut and away from the rest of the body…