Tag Archives: cambridge

Genome of longest-living cancer: 11,000-year-old living dog cancer reveals its origin, evolution

Scientists have sequenced the genome of the world’s oldest continuously surviving cancer, a transmissible genital cancer that affects dogs. This cancer, which causes grotesque genital tumors in dogs around the world, first arose in a single dog that lived about 11,000 years ago. The cancer survived after the death of this dog by the transfer of its cancer cells to other dogs during mating…

NHS cancer risk threshold ‘too high’ for patients, research indicates

Although no fixed threshold is defined for the UK, in practice, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines suggest that patients need to have symptoms which indicate a five per cent risk or higher before further tests for most cancers are carried out. In the UK, one in three people in the UK will develop cancer during their lifetime…

Breaking down cancer’s defense mechanisms

The method uses a drug which breaks down the protective barrier surrounding pancreatic cancer tumors, enabling cancer-attacking T cells to get through. The drug is used in combination with an antibody that blocks a second target, which improves the activity of these T cells. Initial tests of the combined treatment, carried out by researchers at the University’s Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, resulted in almost complete elimination of cancer cells in one week. The findings, reported in the journal PNAS, mark the first time this has been achieved in any pancreatic cancer model. …

New compound could reverse loss of muscle mass in cancer, other diseases

"Age-related loss of muscle mass is a major contributing factor to falls, broken bones, and the loss of mobility," says co-corresponding author David Glass of Novartis, Cambridge, MA, one of the compound’s developers, along with first author Estelle Trifilieff, also of Novartis. "This study illustrates that we may have a powerful tool to prevent muscle wasting and promote growth." The new compound (BYM338) acts to prevent muscle wasting by blocking a receptor that engages a cellular signaling system that exists to put the brakes on muscle development when appropriate. But sometimes those brakes are activated inappropriately, or are stuck on. "Our goal was to release the brakes," says Glass…

Potential of protein-measurement technique to standardize quantification of entire human proteome

The study, to be published Dec. 8 online in the journal Nature Methods, shows that the scientists’ targeted protein-detection approach has the potential to systematically and reliably measure the entire human repertoire of proteins, known as the proteome. …

New family of proteins linked to major role in cancer

A major new study in the journal Nature sets out the structure of the new family, called glutamate intramembrane proteases – the founding member of which plays a critical role in transforming healthy cells into cancer cells. The research, funded by Cancer Research UK and conducted by scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, defined the structure of a protein called Rce1, and established it as the first known member of a whole new protein family. …

Scientists discover a molecular ‘switch’ in cancers of the testis and ovary

Malignant germ cell tumours arise in sperm- or egg-forming cells and usually occur in the reproductive organs, the testes or ovaries. The cancerous tumours are seen in patients of all ages, both in childhood and adulthood. Although many patients do well after treatment, current chemotherapy treatments can have severe long-term side effects, including hearing loss and damage to the kidneys, lungs and bone marrow. For some patients, outcomes remain poor and testicular cancer continues to be a leading cause of death in young men…

Cross-country collaboration leads to new leukemia model

And after almost a decade of bicoastal collaboration, Emmanuelle Passegué, now a professor in the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of California, San Francisco, and Amy Wagers, a professor in Harvard’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, have the answer. They have found that cancer stem cells actively remodel the environment of the bone marrow, where blood cells are formed, so that it is hospitable only to diseased cells. This finding could influence the effectiveness of bone marrow transplants, currently the only cure for late-stage leukemia, but with a 25 percent success rate due to repopulation of residual cancer cells…