Tag Archives: james

Mutations need help from evolution to cause cancer

“It’s really all about natural selection and survival of the fittest,” says James DeGregori, PhD, investigator at the CU Cancer Center, professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the CU School of Medicine, and the paper’s senior author. “When you’re young, healthy cells are optimized to the surrounding tissue — they’re the ‘fittest’,” DeGregori says. …

Testosterone may contribute to colon cancer tumor growth

In his study, James Amos-Landgraf, an assistant professor of veterinary pathobiology in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, observed normal levels of naturally occurring colon cancer in a group of male rats. He then removed testosterone from those rats and colon cancer rates decreased dramatically. After reintroducing testosterone, the colon cancer rates returned to normal. “Previously, scientists believed that female hormones may have lent some sort of protection against tumor susceptibility,” Amos-Landgraf said…

Potential link between breast cancer genes, salivary gland cancer — ScienceDaily

Although salivary gland cancer is rare, this retrospective study suggests it occurs 17 times more often in people with inherited mutations in genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2, than those in the general population. “Further study is needed to confirm this preliminary result, but I believe that a BRCA-positive patient with a lump in a salivary gland should have that lesion evaluated as soon as possible,” says co-author Theodoros Teknos, MD, professor and chair of otolaryngology, director of head and neck oncologic surgery, and the David E…

Survival molecule helps cancer cells hide from the immune system

A new study by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center — Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC — James) shows that a molecule called nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB) helps cancer cells by suppressing the immune system’s ability to detect and destroy them. …

Sabotage as therapy: Aiming lupus antibodies at vulnerable cancer cells

The findings were published recently in Nature’s journal Scientific Reports. The study, led by James E. Hansen, M.D., assistant professor of therapeutic radiology at Yale School of Medicine, found that cancer cells with deficient DNA repair mechanisms (or the inability to repair their own genetic damage) were significantly more vulnerable to attack by lupus antibodies. “Patients with lupus make a wide range of autoantibodies that attack their own cells and contribute to the signs and symptoms associated with lupus…

Immune therapy might be effective for multiple myeloma

The researchers modified a type of human immune cell — called T lymphocytes, or T cells — to target a molecule called CS1, which is found on more than 95 percent of myeloma cells, and to kill the cells. The researchers grew the modified cells in the lab to increase their numbers and then injected them into an animal model where they again killed human myeloma cells. The findings were published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research…