Tag Archives: fak

Key mechanism, potential target to prevent leukemia found

The studies, in animal models, could lead to new effective treatments for leukemias that are resistant to chemotherapy, said Reuben Kapur, Ph.D., Freida and Albrecht Kipp Professor of Pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. The research was reported today in the journal Cell Reports. “The issue in the field for a long time has been that many patients relapse even though chemotherapy and other currently available drugs get rid of mature blast cells quite readily,” Dr. Kapur said, referring to the cancerous cells that overrun the blood system in leukemia. …

Breast cancer recurrence: Study provides insight

Around 5,000 cases of DCIS, a condition where cancerous cells are contained within the milk ducts of the breast, are diagnosed each year in the UK, with two thirds diagnosed through breast screening. If left untreated, up to half of DCIS cases could progress into invasive breast cancer, but it is not possible to say which ones, so all women are offered treatment. This usually involves breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy) and, to reduce the risk of the cancer returning, radiotherapy to kill any remaining cancer cells. However, even with treatment up to one in five patients will see their DCIS come back, either as DCIS or as invasive breast cancer. …

Finding the Achilles’ heel of ovarian tumor growth

The findings come in a pair of studies published online this week in the journals Gynecologic Oncology and Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. Ovarian cancer is a leading cause of female cancer death in the United States…

FAK helps tumor cells enter bloodstream

Unless it can enter a blood or lymphatic vessel, a cancer cell is imprisoned in the tissue where it arises. The growth factor VEGF is the tumor cell’s master key…