Category Archives: Cancer

Gene linked to tamoxifen-resistant breast cancers — ScienceDaily

The gene, called MACROD2, might also be useful in screening for some aggressive forms of breast cancers, and, someday, offering a new target for therapy, says Ben Ho Park, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of oncology in the Kimmel Cancer Center’s Breast Cancer Program and a member of the research team. The drug tamoxifen is used to treat estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers. Cells in this type of breast cancer produce protein receptors in their nuclei which bind to and grow in response to the hormone estrogen. Tamoxifen generally blocks the binding process of the estrogen-receptor, but some estrogen receptor-positive cancers are resistant or become resistant to tamoxifen therapy, finding ways to elude its effects…

New insights into breast cancer spread could yield better tests and treatments — ScienceDaily

According to the National Cancer Institute, more than 232,000 American women developed breast cancer last year and nearly 40,000 women died from the disease. It is the most common cancer among women in the United States. Most breast cancer deaths occur because the cancer has spread, or metastasized, which means that cells in the primary tumor have invaded blood vessels and traveled via the bloodstream to form tumors elsewhere in the body…

Pathology specialist contributes to debate on breast cancer gene screening — ScienceDaily

Glenn E. Palomaki, PhD, associate director of the Division of Medical Screening and Special Testing in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island has recently published an invited commentary in the November issue of Genetics in Medicine…

Quality of biopsy directly linked to survival in patients with bladder cancer — ScienceDaily

The two-year study found that about half of bladder cancer patients who were biopsied had insufficient material — meaning there was no bladder wall muscle retrieved — to accurately stage the cancer. Additionally, the UCLA research team found that a suboptimal biopsy and incorrect tumor staging was associated with a significant increase in deaths from bladder cancer, said study first author Dr…

Treatment breakthrough for advanced bladder cancer — ScienceDaily

Published today in Nature, the study examined an antibody (MPDL3280A) which blocks a protein (PD-L1) thought to help cancer cells evade immune detection. In a phase one, multi-centre international clinical trial, 68 patients with advanced bladder cancer (who had failed all other standard treatments such as chemotherapy) received MPDL3280A, a cancer immunotherapy medicine being developed by Roche. In addition, patients were all tested for the protein PD-L1 and around 30 were identified as having PD-L1 positive tumours. After six weeks of treatment, 43 per cent of PD-L1-positive patients found their tumour had shrunk…

Power behind ‘master’ gene for cancer discovered — ScienceDaily

In bean sprouts, a collection of amino acids known as a protein complex allows them to grow longer in the darkness than in the light. In humans, a similar protein complex called CSN and its subunit CSN6 is now believed to be a cancer-causing gene that impacts activity of another gene (Myc) tied to tumor growth. Somehow the same mechanisms that result in bigger bean sprouts, also cause cancer metastasis and tumor development…

Why patients respond to a life-saving melanoma drug

The study, led by UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center members Drs. Paul Tumeh and Antoni Ribas, primary investigator of pembrolizumab, is the first of its kind since the FDA approved the use of Keytruda in September and could lead the way for more effective use of the drug in patients with melanoma and other cancers. A protein known as PD-1 puts the immune system’s brakes on, preventing T cells from attacking cancer cells. Pembrolizumab removes the brake lines, freeing up the immune system to kill cancer cells. …

Saving ovaries does not help prevent prolapse for women after menopause

Whether to remove ovaries at hysterectomy for reasons other than cancer is a subject of hot debate. Removing them reduces the risk of breast cancer and dramatically reduces the risk of ovarian cancer. On the other hand, studies have associated removing ovaries with increased risk of death, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, and osteoporosis and with declines in cognitive ability and sexual function. And many assumed that removing ovaries would also increase the risk of pelvic organ prolapse. …

‘Off switch’ for pain discovered: Activating the adenosine A3 receptor subtype is key to powerful pain relief

The scientific efforts led by Salvemini, who is professor of pharmacological and physiological sciences at SLU, demonstrated that turning on a receptor in the brain and spinal cord counteracts chronic nerve pain in male and female rodents. Activating the A3 receptor — either by its native chemical stimulator, the small molecule adenosine, or by powerful synthetic small molecule drugs invented at the NIH — prevents or reverses pain that develops slowly from nerve damage without causing analgesic tolerance or intrinsic reward (unlike opioids). An Unmet Medical Need Pain is an enormous problem…

Vaccines may make war on cancer personal

Like flu vaccines, cancer vaccines in development are designed to alert the immune system to be on the lookout for dangerous invaders. But instead of preparing the immune system for potential pathogen attacks, the vaccines will help key immune cells recognize the unique features of cancer cells already present in the body. …