"Cervical cancer is a huge problem worldwide, but isn’t as big a problem in the United States. So in many ways it tends to become a somewhat overlooked and under-studied disease," says Tracey Schefter, MD, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, director of the Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and the study’s lead author…
"In these studies, say we treat cells with the IC-50 of a drug — at that dose, 50 percent of cells should live and 50 percent of cells should die. But the fundamental question is why does cell A die whereas cell B lives? What we show is that the difference may be due to random variation in the amount of autophagy that’s going on," says Andrew Thorburn, PhD, deputy director of the CU Cancer Center. Previous studies show that autophagy promotes cell survival — under conditions of stress or shortage, cells break down non-necessary components to provide energy or use the same strategy to prevent cellular damage by degrading and recycling potentially damaging proteins. …
A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published today in the journal Stem Cells shows it’s the latter: the progenitor cells that create MI bladder cancer are different than the progenitor cells that create NMI bladder cancer. Though these two cancers grow at the same site, they are different diseases…
"When you have known oncogenes that are already targeted by FDA-approved drugs, it just made sense to look for these oncogenes in other cancers," says Marileila Varella Garcia, PhD, investigator at the CU Cancer Center and professor at the CU School of Medicine. "By rethinking the way we understand cancers — as their genetic mutations and not just as the sites where they live in the body — we see that a therapy that targets a specific mutation may show benefit in treating any other cancer that shares the same mutation," says Dara Aisner, MD, PhD, investigator at the CU Cancer Center and molecular pathologist at the CU School of Medicine…
"Think of it like damming a river. Bevacizumab can block the main flow, but then once a tumor’s need builds up behind this dam, water starts to flow around the blockage in the form of streams and tributaries. That’s like these other growth factors — eventually a tumor becomes able to use these tributaries of VEGF-C, VEGF-D and placental growth factor to supply itself with the ‘water’ it needs," says Christopher Lieu, MD, investigator at the CU Cancer Center and assistant professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine…
This multi-site study co-led by Bryan R. Haugen, MD, professor of medicine and pathology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine provides the first long-term look at how these patients fared, and its findings reaffirm the performance of the Afirma Gene Expression Classifier (GEC). Haugen said "Each year, tens of thousands of patients with thyroid nodules have surgery to remove all or part of their thyroids…
Metformin, the most common first-line drug in the treatment of type-2 diabetes, has been shown in previous studies to reduce breast cancer risk, improve survival, and increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy. Numerous Phase III clinical trials are currently evaluating the benefits and best uses of metformin in breast cancer patients. "We show that metformin works differently in high- compared to low-glucose conditions. Not only does it require a higher concentration of metformin to be active in high-glucose conditions, but we report that the drug regulates different genes within cancer cells at high as compared to normal glucose levels," says Ann Thor, MD, CU Cancer Center investigator, Todd Professor of Pathology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and the study’s principal investigator. …
"We split the samples into two groups: poor responders who had gone less than 100 days after treatment before the progression of their disease, and strong responders who had made it more than 300 days after their treatment without disease progression. Then we could explore the genetic differences between these two groups," says Dawn Duval, PhD, CU Cancer Center investigator and associate professor of molecular oncology at Colorado State University. Specifically, Duval and colleagues including first author Deanna Dailey, DVM, looked at the expression of a protein called HES1, which is used as a proxy to test for NOTCH activation. High HES1 means that upstream, NOTCH is firing…
Metastasis is responsible for the overwhelming majority of cancer deaths and there are many theories as to how it occurs, but the problem remains yet unsolved. …
"Even outside these specific findings with cancer, what we’re saying is that flavonoids are active and not always in good or even predictable ways," says Steven K. …