Tag Archives: institute

Study reveals TWEAK-Fn14 as key drug target

TWEAK is a cytokine, or soluble protein, that controls many cellular activities and acts by binding to a cell surface receptor known as Fn14. TWEAK binding to Fn14 triggers a wide range of cellular activities, including blood clotting, inflammation, cell proliferation, cell migration, and the creation of new blood vessels. While many of these activities are beneficial — for example, helping to heal a cut — excessive TWEAK-Fn14 activation also has been linked to tissue damage and degradation, including autoimmune diseases, as well as the survival, migration and invasion of cancer cells. "Our results show that the TWEAK-Fn14 interaction is a viable drug target, and they provide the foundation for further exploration of this system in researching invasive cancers," said Dr. …

Customizing treatments for deadly prostate cancer with tumor genomics

"Men with castration-resistant prostate cancer have abysmal survival rates, typically living an average of two years once hormone therapies fail," says Manish Kohli, M.D., a Mayo Clinic oncologist and principal investigator of the Prostate Cancer Medically Optimized Genome-Enhanced Therapy (PROMOTE) study. Dr. Kohli says the poor prognosis for men with this cancer highlights the need for studies like PROMOTE, which seek to match new targeted drugs with the genomic characteristics of individual patients’ tumors. Several new therapies have recently been approved by the FDA for use in treating castration-resistant prostate cancer, offering new hope for men with this disease. …

Chemists develop new way to kill cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy drug

A new study from MIT and the University of Toronto offers a possible way to overcome that resistance. The researchers found that when cisplatin was delivered to cellular structures called mitochondria, DNA in this organelle was damaged, leading to cancer cell death. …

Imaging studies may predict tumor response to anti-angiogenic drugs

"Two recent phase III trials of another anti-angiogenic drug, bevacizumab, showed no improvement in overall survival for glioblastoma patients, but our study suggests that only a subset of such patients will really benefit from these drugs," explains Tracy Batchelor, MD, director of the Pappas Center for Neuro-Oncology at the MGH Cancer Center and co-lead and corresponding author of the current study. "Our results also verify that normalization of tumor vasculature appears to be the way that anti-angiogenic drugs enhance the activity of chemotherapy and radiation treatment." Anti-angiogenic drugs, which block the action of factors that stimulate the growth of blood vessels, were first introduced for cancer treatment under the theory that they would act by ‘starving’ tumors of their blood supply…