Tag Archives: biology

New biomarker highly promising for predicting breast cancer outcomes

Cancer is deadly in large part due to its ability to metastasize, to travel from one organ or tissue type to another and malignantly sprout anew. The vast majority of cancer deaths are associated with metastasis. In breast cancer, a process called “epithelial to mesenchymal transition” aids metastasis…

Novel gene predicts both breast cancer relapse, response to chemotherapy

Despite advancements in cancer treatment, breast cancer remains the most common cancer among Singapore women. Thirty percent of early breast cancer patients in the world experience relapse due to metastasis, or the spread of cancer cells to other organs in the body. Some patients also do not respond well to chemotherapy…

Myc inhibition an effective therapeutic strategy against most aggressive brain tumors

In a study published last year, the group succeded in eradicating lung tumors in transgenic mice by adopting the same strategy involving the expression of Omomyc, a Myc inhibitor designed by Soucek. They also confirmed that there were no side effects post-administration of repeated and long-term treatment. Importantly, there was no evidence of resistance to therapy — one of the greatest challenges in the treatment of cancer. …

Long-sought drug candidate can halt tumor growth, scientists demonstrate

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) tried a similar strategy when they attempted to disrupt the function of MYC, a cancer regulator thought to be “undruggable.” The researchers found that a credit card-like molecule they developed somehow moves in and disrupts the critical interactions between MYC and its binding partner. The research, published the week of August 11 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also shows the drug candidate can stop tumor growth in animal models. …

Breakthroughs made in ovarian cancer research

There are three predominant cancers that affect women — breast, ovarian and womb cancer. Of the three, ovarian cancer is of the greatest concern as it is usually diagnosed only at an advanced stage due to the absence of clear early warning symptoms. Successful treatment is difficult at this late stage, resulting in high mortality rates. Ovarian cancer has increased in prevalence in Singapore as well as other developed countries recently…

Brain tumors fly under body’s radar like stealth jets, new research suggests

Like a stealth fighter jet, the coating means the cells evade detection by the early-warning immune system that should detect and kill them. The stealth approach lets the tumors hide until it’s too late for the body to defeat them. The findings, made in mice and rats, show the key role of a protein called galectin-1 in some of the most dangerous brain tumors, called high grade malignant gliomas…

Protein ZEB1 promotes breast tumor resistance to radiation therapy — ScienceDaily

One protein with the even more out-there name of ZEB1 (zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1), is now thought to keep breast cancer cells from being successfully treated with radiation therapy, according to a study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. …

New trick for ‘old’ drug brings hope for pancreatic cancer patients

Cancer Research UK scientists have found a new use for an old drug by showing that it shrinks a particular type of pancreatic cancer tumour and stops it spreading, according to researchpublished in Gut*. The scientists, at the Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute and the University of Glasgow, treated mice with pancreatic cancers caused by known genetic faults with the drug rapamycin**. Previous clinical trials did not find this drug to be effective as a treatment for pancreatic cancers when it was given to all patients with different forms of the disease. But the team’s findings show that a particular type of pancreatic tumour – caused by a fault in the gene PTEN, which is involved in cell growth – may be responsive to the drug after all. …