Tag Archives: animals

Narrow subset of cells is responsible for metastasis in multiple myeloma, study finds

The study suggests that attacking those subsets with targeted drugs may degrade the disease’s ability to spread throughout the bone marrow of affected patients, the authors say. The discovery was made by developing a mouse model of the disease that enabled researchers to track which of 15 genetic groups — or subclones — of myeloma cells spread beyond their initial site in the animals’ hind legs. By labeling the different subgroups with fluorescent dyes, researchers determined that just one of the subclones was responsible for the disease metastasis. They then compared the pattern of gene abnormalities in the initial myeloma tissue and the metastatic tumors. …

Cannabis extract can have dramatic effect on brain cancer, says new research

The new research by specialists at St George’s, University of London, studied the treatment of brain cancer tumours in the laboratory and discovered that the most effective treatment was to combine active chemical components of the cannabis plant which are called cannabinoids. Two of these called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) were tested as part of the research into brain cancer which is particularly difficult to treat and claims the lives of about 5,200 each year. …

Novel compound prevents metastasis of multiple myeloma in mouse studies

The research involves a new approach to the challenge of cancer metastasis, the process by which tumors spread to and colonize distant parts of the body. Whereas research has traditionally focused on cancer cells themselves, scientists are increasingly studying the interactions between tumor cells and the tissues around them — the so-called microenvironment. …

Exercise boosts tumor-fighting ability of chemotherapy, team finds

Their work, performed in a mouse model of melanoma, found that combining exercise with chemotherapy shrunk tumors more than chemotherapy alone. Joseph Libonati, an associate professor in the School of Nursing and director of the Laboratory of Innovative and Translational Nursing Research, was the senior author on the study, which appears in the American Journal of Physiology. His collaborators included Penn Nursing’s Geetha Muthukumaran, Dennis Ding and Akinyemi Bajulaiye plus Kathleen Sturgeon, Keri Schadler, Nicholas J. …

Circulating tumor cell clusters more likely to cause metastasis than single cells

“While CTCs are considered to be precursors of metastasis, the significance of CTC clusters, which are readily detected using devices developed here at MGH, has remained elusive,” says Shyamala Maheswaran, PhD, of the MGH Cancer Center, co-senior author of the Cell paper. “Our findings that the presence of CTC clusters in the blood of cancer patients is associated with poor prognosis may identify a novel and potentially targetable step in the blood-borne spread of cancer.” In their experiments the team used two versions of a microfluidic device called the CTC-Chip — both developed at the MGH Center for Engineering in Medicine — that captures CTCs from blood samples in ways that make the cells accessible for scientific testing. One version — the HBCTC-Chip — can efficiently capture extremely rare CTCs in a blood sample. …