Tag Archives: department

First cancer operation room with navigator is created

The system, presented at Gregorio Marañón Hospital, permits real-time interaction with the body of the patient (with its different tissues and cancer) as well as the radiotherapy applicator used to radiate the area affected by the tumor. This innovation will be used in the surgery of cancers treated with intraoperative radiotherapy in the hope of achieving greater precision in the radiation of potentially cancerous tissues after the removal of the tumor. The installation of this new equipment has entailed a complete remodeling of the operating room. …

Regulation of cancer-causing protein could lead to new therapeutic targets

Atsuo Sasaki, PhD, a member of the CCC, the UC Cancer Institute and the UC Brain Tumor Center as well as an assistant professor in the division of hematology oncology within the department of internal medicine, is the principal investigator on the study, which is published in the Dec. 13, 2013, online edition of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. …

Zebrafish help decode link between calcium deficiency, colon cancer

By studying zebrafish embryo skin, University of Michigan researchers decoded cell messages underlying abnormal colonic cell growth of the kind that can lead to tumors and colon cancer in calcium deficient individuals. They have also tested this new mechanism in human colon cancer cells. Ultimately, the new biological mechanism unraveled in zebrafish will help scientists understand the pathways that fuel low calcium-related abnormal colonic cell growth and how to stop that growth, said Cunming Duan, professor in the U-M Department of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology. To do this, Duan and colleagues used a fluorescent protein to mark a type of epithelial cell, whose job it is to import calcium into the body. …

Newly discovered gene interaction could lead to novel cancer therapies

In the study, recently published in the online version of the journal Cancer Research, Fisher’s team found that forced expression of MDA-7/IL-24 (melanoma differentiation associated gene-7/interlukin-24) stimulates SARI (suppressor of AP-1, induced by interferon) expression in what is known as an autocrine/paracrine loop, which ultimately causes cancer cells to undergo a form of cell suicide known as apoptosis. Autocrine/paracrine loops occur when the expression of a particular gene or its encoded protein causes cells to secrete molecules that bind to surface receptors and force the expression of more of the same protein in an ongoing cycle…

Ovarian cancer discovery deepens knowledge of survival outcomes

The research, led by Dong-Joo (Ellen) Cheon, PhD, found that the 10-gene biomarker panel may identify the aggressiveness of a patient’s disease, help predict survival outcomes and result in novel therapeutic strategies tailored to patients with the most adverse survival outcomes. When a patient’s tumor is identified as having elevated levels of these 10 specific genes, doctors may be able to better predict which treatments would be most effective, said Cheon, whose research was published in Clinical Cancer Research. That is an important advance because ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecologic cancer and is often diagnosed in later, more aggressive stages, resulting in poor prognosis and survival. These outcomes differ due to development of tumors that become resistant to chemotherapy. …

Decreased diversity of bacteria microbiome in gut associated colorectal cancer

Previous studies suggest a role for the gut microbiota in colorectal cancer (CRC), but comprehensive epidemiological studies comparing samples from case and control subjects that also consider potential confounders and adjust for multiple comparisons inherently involved in microbiome analysis have not been reported. Jiyoung Ahn, Ph.D., from Department of Population Health at New York University School of Medicine in New York, NY, and colleagues compared samples and data from participants enrolled in a case-control study…

Protein in prostate biopsies signals increased cancer risk

Their findings, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, are the first to quantify, in the setting of a clinical trial, the increased risk of prostate cancer development from the protein ERG. Traditional means of determining risk of prostate cancer — blood tests for the protein prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and biopsies — do not always correlate well with the chances of dying from the disease. Decisions on what to do with the results of these tests can be unclear, leaving doctors and patients frustrated and unsure of how to proceed. …