Tag Archives: institute

Fast modeling of cancer mutations

MIT researchers have now developed a new way to model the effects of these genetic mutations in mice. Their approach, based on the genome-editing technique known as CRISPR, is much faster than existing strategies, which require genetically engineering mice that carry the cancerous mutations. “It’s a very rapid and very adaptable approach to make models,” says Thales Papagiannakopoulos, a postdoc at MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and one of the lead authors of the paper, which appears in the Oct…

Hidden subpopulation of melanoma cells discovered

The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, provides evidence for how these particular melanoma cells help tumors resist drugs designed to block blood vessel formation. “For a long time the hope has been that anti-angiogenic therapies would starve tumors of the nutrients they need to thrive, but these drugs haven’t worked as well as we all had hoped,” said Andrew C…

Advances in creating treatment for common childhood blood cancer

An estimated quarter of the 500 U.S. adolescents and young adults diagnosed each year with this aggressive disease fail to respond to standard chemotherapy drugs that target cancer cells. In a report on the work conducted with mice and human laboratory cells, and published in the Oct. 23 edition of the journal Nature, the NYU Langone team concludes that the enzyme JMJD3 — (pronounced ju-mon-ji D3) — acts as a cancer “on” switch by splitting off a chemical methyl group of another protein that is usually methylated by a tumor-suppressing enzyme. …

Biomarkers uPA/PAI-1 in breast cancer: Benefit, harm of test unclear

Adjuvant systemic treatments aim to prolong survival Even if the breast cancer was completely removed in surgery, the tumour can come back. The risk of such a recurrence can be low, intermediate or high. Adjuvant systemic treatments including chemotherapy are used to lower the risk of recurrence and prolong survival. …

With three first-in-human trials, therapeutic stem cell science takes a bold step

The procedure, conducted on Sept. 30 under the auspices of the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at UC San Diego Health System and in collaboration with Neuralstem, Inc., a Maryland-based biotechnology firm, is the first of four in the Phase I clinical trial. …

New mechanism affecting cell migration found

Cell migration has mainly been studied in cell culture environment. However, in animal tissues cells predominantly migrate in a three-dimensional environment, where they have to push through adjacent cell-layers and extracellular matrix. Migrating cells are known to form dynamic protrusions at their leading edge, but the function of these actin-rich protrusions has remained elusive. By using fruit fly as a model system, Minna Poukkula working at the Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, has found out how actin-rich protrusions contribute to cell migration in animal tissues…

Immune cells in liver drive fatty liver disease, liver cancer

These liver diseases (NAFLD and NASH), along with chronic viral infections, are the most common causes of liver cancer, or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In the United States, about 90 million people suffer from NAFLD. In Europe, the figure is more than 40 million, and even in threshold countries like India and China, the number of people affected is rising due to increasingly unhealthy lifestyles. More worrying, in all of the above mentioned states the numbers of NAFLD and NASH patients is constantly increasing. …

Body position in breast cancer radiation treatment matters, experts say — ScienceDaily

Dr. Julia White of Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center — James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute has helped develop a modified treatment board that allows patients to lie comfortably on their stomachs while the breast tissue falls away from the chest wall, allowing the radiation to target the cancer. Traditionally, women who undergo radiation therapy lie on their backs in the supine position. …

Side effects of cancer prevention surgery can be helped with a single-day education program, study finds

The program taught women how to manage some of the physical and emotional difficulties that can follow ovary-removing surgery and helped many participants resume satisfying sexual activity and reduce feelings of anxiety and depression, the investigators found. The study, published today in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, underscores the need to inform women about the aftereffects of this type of surgery and, critically, let them know that such problems can be dealt with successfully. “For women who inherit genetic mutations that put them at increased risk for ovarian cancer, oophorectomy — surgical removal of the ovaries — can sharply lower that risk…