Tag Archives: institute

Immune system is key ally in cyberwar against cancer

“Recent research has found that cancer is already adept at using cyberwarfare against the immune system, and we studied the interplay between cancer and the immune system to see how we might turn the tables on cancer,” said Rice University’s Eshel Ben-Jacob, co-author of a new study this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Ben-Jacob and colleagues at Rice’s Center for Theoretical Biological Physics (CTBP) and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, developed a computer program that modeled a specific channel of cell-to-cell communication involving exosomes. Exosomes are tiny packets of proteins, messenger RNA and other information-coding segments that both cancer and immune cells make and use to send information to other cells…

A way to kill chemo-resistant ovarian cancer cells: Cut down its protector

It is estimated that 2,700 Canadian women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2014 and that 1,750 Canadian women will die from the disease, according to Ovarian Cancer Canada. This cancer is often diagnosed late and develops a resistance to chemotherapy. “What we’ve discovered will help clinicians to better treat women with ovarian cancer,” says Dr. Ben Tsang, senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and professor at the University of Ottawa…

Study questions accuracy of lung cancer screens in some geographic regions

Histoplasmosis and other fungal diseases are linked to fungi that are often concentrated in bird droppings and are found in soils. The study by investigators at Vanderbilt University and the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System-Veterans Affairs was led by Vanderbilt first author Stephen Deppen, Ph.D., and principal investigator Eric Grogan, M.D., MPH, and appeared in the Sept. 24 issue of JAMA. Positron emission tomography (PET) combined with fludeoxyglucose F18 (FDG) is currently recommended for the noninvasive diagnosis of lung nodules suspicious for lung cancer…

Blood test could identify when cancer treatment has become detrimental — ScienceDaily

Researchers identified the emergence of drug-resistant cancer cells by testing repeated blood samples from patients with advanced prostate cancer. They set out a new ‘treatment paradigm’ — the constant monitoring of patients using a blood test for signs that therapy is becoming counter-productive. The study was conducted at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Trento in Italy. …

Melanoma risk found to have genetic determinant

“For the first time, we have established that the genes controlling the length of these telomeres play a part in the risk of developing melanoma,” said lead author of the study Mark Iles, PhD, School of Medicine at the University of Leeds (UK). Telomeres are a part of the genome that function like the plastic caps of your shoelaces, which prevent the laces from fraying…