Tag Archives: journal

New combination therapy developed for multiple myeloma

While several drugs are effective against multiple myeloma, including the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib, multiple myeloma cells are often able to survive by increasing the production of a protein known as Mcl-1. Mcl-1 regulates a number of processes that promote cell survival and has been implicated in resistance to anti-myeloma drugs that were initially effective. However, a team of researchers led by Xin-Yan Pei, M.D., Ph.D., and Steven Grant, M.D., recently published the findings of a study in the journal PLoS ONE demonstrating that a novel drug combination both reduces Mcl-1 expression and disrupts its interactions with other proteins to effectively kill multiple myeloma cells. …

Synthetic triterpenoids show promise in preventing colitis-associated colon cancer

The molecules, known as synthetic triterpenoids, appear to achieve their positive effect in two ways. First, they impede inflammation, often a flashpoint that contributes to the development of colon cancer. Second, they increase 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH), a gene product that is known at high levels to protect against colon cancer. …

People with HIV with early-stage cancers are up to four times more likely to go untreated for cancer

Life expectancy for HIV-infected people is now similar to uninfected people, but survival for HIV patients who develop cancer is not. While many studies have attempted to understand why HIV-infected cancer patients have worse outcomes, the new study, the largest of its size and scope, examined differences in cancer treatment as one potential explanation. For early-stage cancers that have the highest chance of cure with appropriate treatment, those with HIV were twice to four times as likely to not receive appropriate cancer treatment, the researchers found…

‘Signatures’ of genetic mutations in colorectal cancer: Discovery may advance diagnosis, treatment

The technological tour de force, described in the current issue of the journal Nature as the first integrated “proteogenomic” characterization of human cancer, “will enable new advances” in diagnosing and treating the disease, the scientists concluded. “It’s a first-of-its-kind paper. I think it’s a very important advance in the field,” said senior author Daniel Liebler, Ph.D., Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and director of the Jim Ayers Institute for Precancer Detection and Diagnosis at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. The research team, representing Vanderbilt and six other institutions, is part of the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC), sponsored by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)…

Negative HPV test may predict lower cervical cancer risk than a negative Pap

In a comparison of the three strategies, Julia C. Gage, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, and colleagues analyzed data from the Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) large integrated health delivery system, which screened women age 30-64 since 2003 with both HPV and Pap testing. Data were available through 2012, and over 1 million women were screened at approximately 3-year intervals, with a mean follow-up time of 4.36 years. For each testing strategy, they estimated the cumulative risk of cervical cancer after a negative test result. …

Total darkness at night key to success of breast cancer therapy, study shows — ScienceDaily

Principal investigators and co-leaders of Tulane’s Circadian Cancer Biology Group, Steven Hill and David Blask, along with team members Robert Dauchy and Shulin Xiang, investigated the role of melatonin on the effectiveness of tamoxifen in combating human breast cancer cells implanted in rats. “In the first phase of the study, we kept animals in a daily light/dark cycle of 12 hours of light followed by 12 hours of total darkness (melatonin is elevated during the dark phase) for several weeks,” says Hill…

Marginal life expectancy benefit from contralateral prophylactic mastectomy — ScienceDaily

To assess the survival benefit of CPM, Pamela R. Portschy, of the Department of Surgery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and colleagues, developed a model simulating survival outcomes of CPM or no CPM for women with newly diagnosed stage I or II breast cancer, using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry and large meta-analyses. Survival benefit projections were made for women by age (40, 50, or 60 years), breast cancer stage (I or II), and estrogen receptor (ER) status (positive or negative). Women with BRCA mutations were excluded from the analysis because they have a much higher risk of developing contralateral breast cancer. …

Metastatic brain tumor treatment could be on the horizon with use of SapC-DOPS — ScienceDaily

However, a new Cincinnati Cancer Center (CCC) study, published in the advance online edition of the journal Oncotarget, provides hope that previously studied SapC-DOPS could be used for treatment of brain cancer that has spread. Xiaoyang Qi, PhD, member of the CCC, associate director and associate professor in the division of hematology oncology at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine and a member of the UC Cancer and Neuroscience Institutes and the Brain Tumor Center, says this critical data shows promise for finding treatment for one of the deadliest cancers. A lysosomal protein saposin C (SapC), and a phospholipid, known as dioleoylphosphatidylserine (DOPS), can be combined and assembled into tiny cavities, or nanovesicles, to target and kill many forms of cancer cells…