Tag Archives: cancer

New resistance mechanism to chemotherapy in breast and ovarian cancer

The team led by Spanish National Cancer Research Centre researcher Óscar Fernández-Capetillo, head of the Genomic Instability Group, together with researchers from the National Cancer Institute in the US, have participated in a study that describes the causes that explain why tumours with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations stop responding to PARP inhibitor drugs. "PARP inhibitors are only toxic in tumours that have an impaired DNA repair mechanism, such as those that contain BRCA1/2 mutations" says María Nieto-Soler, a researcher from Fernández-Capetillo’s team…

Aspirin may fight cancer by slowing DNA damage

"Aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which are commonly available and cost-effective medications, may exert cancer-preventing effects by lowering mutation rates," said Carlo Maley, PhD, a member of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and an expert on how cancers evolve in the body over time. In the study, published June 13 in the online journal PLOS Genetics, Maley, working with gastroenterologist and geneticist Brian Reid, MD, PhD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, analyzed biopsy samples from 13 patients with a pre-cancerous condition called Barrett’s esophagus who were tracked for six to 19 years. In an "observational crossover" study design, some patients started out taking daily aspirin for several years, and then stopped, while others started taking aspirin for the first time during observation…

Nanog protein promotes growth of head and neck cancer

The study shows that a protein called Nanog, which is normally active in embryonic stem cells, promotes the growth of cancer stem cells in head and neck cancer. The findings provide information essential for designing novel targeted drugs that might improve the treatment of head and neck cancer. Normally, Nanog helps healthy embryonic stem cells maintain their undifferentiated, uncommitted (i.e., pluripotent) state. …

Chemical probe confirms that body makes its own rotten egg gas, H2S, to benefit health

Hydrogen sulfide, or H2S, is normally toxic, but in small amounts it plays a role in cardiovascular health. In the new study, chemists developed a chemical probe that reacts and lights up when live human cells generate hydrogen sulfide, says chemist Alexander R. Lippert, Southern Methodist University, Dallas…

Facebook helped boost organ donor registration

Raising awareness of organ donation on social media websites can help boost donation rates, according to a new study. Facebook began allowing users to make their status as organ donors visible in their profiles in May 2012, and on the first day of the change, about 13,000 people in the U.S. registered to become organ donors 20 times more than the average number of daily registrations. The effect of the social media initiative on its first day varied across states, ranging from a seven-fold increase in registrations in Michigan, to 100-fold increase in Georgia, the results showed. The findings mean that social media might be an effective tool for encouraging organ donation, as well as tackling other public health problems in which communication and education are essential, the researchers said. Our research speaks to on-going efforts to address the organ availability crisis in the United States. It also suggests that social media and social networks may be valuable tools in re-approaching refractory public health problems, said study researcher Dr. Andrew Cameron, the surgical director of liver transplantation at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Today, more than 118,500 people in the U.S. are on the waiting list for organs, and one name is added to the list every ten minutes, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. On average, 18 people die every day waiting for an organ. Despite countless previous efforts, organ donation rates in the United States have not grown, while need for transplants has risen dramatically. Therefore, new efforts are needed to boost organ donation through public education, the researchers said. The Facebook initiative t let users add their organ-donation status to the timeline for their friends and family to see. It also directed people to the official organ donation registry websites of their states. The results showed high registration rates following the Facebook initiative, compared with usual rates at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). The boost may stem from the fact that people are more open to making decisions about sensitive and difficult topics when they are in an environment “amongst friends,” compared with the environment at the DMV, the researchers said. However, after the initial spike, registration rates diminished over the following weeks. The researchers said this shows more work is needed to find ways to sustain the increase. “The next challenge for efforts like the organ donor initiative will be utilization of social media applications like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram more effectively and more durably,” the researchers wrote in the study, which was published today (June 18) in the American Journal of Transplantation. Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/18/facebook-helped-boost-organ-donor-registration/

Scientists discover why man stores no fat under skin

British paracyclist Tom Staniford has discovered he is one of just eight people in the world with a rare syndrome. Staniford, 23, is unable to store fat under his skin, losing all the fat around his face and limbs during childhood (despite) having been born a normal weight, the BBC reports. In spite of his wasted frame, Staniford's body thinks he is obese, meaning he has type 2 diabetes. His hearing also became impaired in his childhood, requiring him to wear hearing aids since the age of 10. Staniford’s condition - MDP syndrome - was not identified until recently, when a research team went to work mapping and analyzing his DNA, in a quest to isolate the gene mutation responsible. This was only possible after a second person with the same condition was found. Using the most recent genome sequencing technology, scientists from England, India, Italy and the US were able to identify the single genetic mutation responsible for the rare condition. “All Tom's features can be explained by this one specific change,” said Exeter University scientist Professor Andrew Hattersley, who believes the genetic mutation would have occurred in Staniford’s father’s sperm very early in Staniford's life. Staniford has not let the condition hold him back from achieving several goals, including being British national paracycling circuit race champion in 2011, as well as a degree in law and French. He hopes to become Paralympic circuit race champion at Rio 2016. Staniford does concede, however, that his condition presents particular challenges to training: “I have just 40 percent of the muscles of an average male. I struggle to metabolize sugar and carbohydrates efficiently due to the diabetes - and I struggle to recover due to lack of immediate fuel sources, low testosterone etc. “My muscles have a very narrow margin of efficiency and they're also tight, stiff and inflexible because I don't have fat to perform that role. “This is why I have to constantly experiment and attempt to find, through trial and error, what works.” Staniford is not one to dwell on the rarity of his condition, but says: “[It] is reassuring to know that there are other people with the condition and that we can lead relatively normal lives.” Click for more at news.au.com.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/18/scientists-discover-why-man-stores-no-fat-under-skin/

New medication treats drug-resistant prostate cancer in the laboratory

The results will be presented Monday at The Endocrine Society’s 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco. "Our novel prostate cancer drug works by a unique mechanism of action," said study lead author Jeremy Jones, PhD, assistant professor of molecular pharmacology at City of Hope, Beckman Research Institute, in Duarte, CA. "Thus, it has the potential to treat cancers resistant to currently approved therapies." Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death, after lung cancer, among men in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. The disease affects about one out of every six men, and more than 29,000 will die of prostate cancer this year alone. …