Tag Archives: events

Leukemia: mode of action of a targeted treatment clarified

The PML/RARA protein causes the proliferation of cancer cells in patients affected by acute promyelocytic leukemia. Existing targeted treatments combining a hormone — retinoic acid — and a poison — arsenic — result in permanent recovery for the majority of patients, without us having a precise understanding of their action on cancer cells. Previous work by Prof Hugues de Thé’s team has shown that the combination of arsenic and retinoic acid causes destruction of the PML/RARA protein and the elimination of leukaemic stem cells…

Cell division discovery could offer fresh insight into cancer

Scientists have explained a key part of the process of cell division, by which cells are able to keep our organs functioning properly. They discovered a set of proteins that stabilise the sequence of events in which cells duplicate their DNA and then separate into two new cells, each identical to the original. Flaws in this delicate, complex operation can lead to cancer. The findings help explain a fundamental process in all living things, in which cells must continually divide to keep the organism alive and well…

Rock and rho: Proteins that help cancer cells groove

"High levels of RhoA and ROCK1 were known to worsen outcomes for breast cancer patients by endowing cancer cells with the ability to move, but the trigger for their production was a mystery," says Gregg Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., the C. Michael Armstrong Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and senior author of the article. "We now know that the production of these proteins increases dramatically when breast cancer cells are exposed to low oxygen conditions." To move, cancer cells must make many changes to their internal structures, Semenza says. Thin, parallel filaments form throughout the cells, allowing them to contract and cellular "hands" arise, allowing cells to "grab" external surfaces to pull themselves along. …

Skid row cancer study has implications for treatment

In papers published in the American Journal of Public Health and the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Aronowitz, professor and chair of Penn’s Department of History and Sociology of Science, characterizes the events then and screenings for prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, in more recent years as "part of one continuous story of how medical and lay people came to believe in the efficacy of population screening followed by aggressive treatment without solid supporting scientific evidence." "This is a call to reflection about how we deal with medical knowledge production and medical technological innovation," Aronowitz said. …

Statins reduce cardiovascular events in coronary artery disease patients with very low LDL cholesterol levels

Dr Nakano said: "Many randomised clinical trials, such as Treating to New Targets (TNT) and PROVE IT-TIMI, have shown that aggressive cholesterol lowering with statins improves clinical outcomes in patients with CAD and high LDL-C levels.1,2 But until now it was not known whether aggressive lipid lowering with statins would also benefit CAD patients with very low LDL-C levels." The current study used the Ibaraki Cardiovascular Assessment Study (ICAS), a registry of 2,238 patients from 12 hospitals in the Ibaraki region of Japan, who between 0 and 1 month underwent percutaneous coronary interventions. Based on serum LDL-C levels at initial presentation participants were classified into three groups: very low (<70 mg/dl, n=214); low (71-100 mg/dl, n=669); and high (>101 mg/dl, n= 1,355). Decisions of whether to prescribe statins or not, as well as the type and dose, were left to the discretion of treating physicians…

Cancer is a result of a default cellular ‘safe mode,’ physicist proposes

In this month’s special issue of Physics World devoted to the "physics of cancer," Paul Davies, principal investigator at Arizona State University’s Center for Convergence of Physical Sciences and Cancer Biology, explains his radical new theory. Davies was brought in to lead the centre in 2009 having almost no experience in cancer research whatsoever. …