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Diagnostic tool Oncotype DX associated with reduction in chemotherapy rates post-surgery in younger women with breast cancer — ScienceDaily

Mariana Chavez Mac Gregor, M.D., assistant professor, health services research and breast medical oncology, will present the findings at a poster session of the 2014 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Oncotype DX is a 21-gene assay used to help estimate the likelihood of recurrence in women with early-stage breast cancer and, thus, determine those who may or may not benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network includes its use for women with lymph node-negative, hormone receptor (HR)-positive and HER2-negative disease. …

Getting antibodies into shape to fight cancer

The latest types of treatment for cancer are designed to switch on the immune system, allowing the patient’s own immune cells to attack and kill cancerous cells, when normally the immune cells would lie dormant. In a study, funded by Cancer Research UK and published in the journal Cancer Cell, the Southampton team have found that a particular form of antibody, called IgG2B, is much more effective at stimulating cancer immunity than other types. Unlike other forms of antibody, IgG2B can work independently without needing help from other immune cells, making it more active and able to work in all tissues of the body. The team have also been able to engineer antibodies that will be locked into the particular shape (called a locked B structure) that is most active, making them much stronger immune stimulators than previous drugs…

Senescent cells play an essential role in wound healing

“What is most exciting is that we are now able to identify what senescent cells express that makes them beneficial,” said Campisi, senior scientist on the study. “This means we will be able to simply provide that factor while we eliminate senescent cells to prevent a deleterious side effect before it even occurs.” Postdoctoral fellow, Marco Demaria, PhD, lead author of the study, used two different mouse models: in the first, which was developed in collaboration with colleagues at the Erasmus, Harvard and Einstein Medical Schools, senescent cells can be visualized and eliminated in living animals; in the second, which was developed by Eiji Hara, Naoko Ohtani and colleagues at the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, mutations in two key genes block the senescence program…

New targeted drugs could treat drug-resistant skin cancer

Existing drugs target faulty versions of a protein called BRAF which drives about half of all melanomas, but while initially very effective, the cancers almost always become resistant to treatment within a year. The new drugs — called panRAF inhibitors — could be effective in patients with melanoma who have developed resistance to BRAF inhibitors…

Studies target androgen in breast cancer — ScienceDaily

“We’re on the cusp of a major revolution in the way we treat breast cancer. We’ve known for years that prostate cancer is driven by androgens and now it’s increasingly clear that androgens and androgen receptors can influence many breast cancers as well. AR is actually even more prevalent in breast cancer than estrogen or progesterone receptors. Targeting androgen receptors in breast cancer gives us an new way to attack the disease,” says Jennifer Richer, PhD, investigator at the CU Cancer Center and head of the Richer Laboratory that produced the results…

Women with dense breasts will have to look beyond ultrasound for useful supplemental breast cancer screening — ScienceDaily

In a study released Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Tosteson and colleagues, including lead author Brian Sprague, MD, provide evidence on the benefits and harms of adding ultrasound to breast cancer screening for women who have had a negative mammogram and also have dense breasts. The study will help inform the national legislative discussion about potential regulations requiring health providers to tell women if their mammogram shows that they have dense breasts. …

Genotyping errors plague CYP2D6 testing for tamoxifen therapy — ScienceDaily

For years, controversy has surrounded the CYP2D6 gene test for breast cancer. Women with certain inherited genetic deficiencies in the CYP2D6 gene metabolize tamoxifen less efficiently, and thus have lower levels of tamoxifen’s active cancer-fighting metabolite endoxifen. Numerous studies have shown that these women gain less benefit from tamoxifen therapy and have higher rates of recurrence. However, two large clinical trials found no link between the CYP2D6 genotype and tamoxifen effectiveness, prompting recommendations against testing…

Pathway that degrades holiday turkey fuels metastasis of triple negative breast cancer — ScienceDaily

“I’m not saying that people with metastatic breast cancer shouldn’t eat turkey during the holidays, but triple-negative breast cancer appears to have found a way to process tryptophan more quickly, equipping cancer cells to survive while in circulation, which allows them to metastasize,” says Thomas Rogers, the paper’s first author and PhD candidate in the laboratory of CU Cancer Center investigator, Jennifer Richer, PhD. …

New breast cancer classification based on epigenetics — ScienceDaily

The identification of patients with high-risk breast cancer is key to knowing whether a patient will require only the removal of the tumor by surgery or whether if she will need additional chemotherapy to make sure the removal of breast cancer cells. Currently, known genetic mutations and expression patterns are determined, but the puzzle of the genetics of the disease remains a large unfinished part…