Some particularly enterprising cancer cells can cause a cancer to spread to other organs, called metastasis, or evade treatment to resurface after a patient is thought to be in remission. The Illinois team, along with colleagues in China, found that these so-called tumor-repopulating cells may lurk quietly in stiffer cellular environments, but thrive in a softer space. The results appear in the journal Nature Communications…
Professor Wayne Brodland is developing computational models for studying the mechanical interactions between cells. In this project, he worked with a team of international researchers who found that the way wounds knit together is more complex than we thought…
For the first time, scientists have reviewed all the available evidence from many studies and clinical trials assessing both the benefits and harms of preventive use of aspirin. Conclusions of the study are published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology. …
“We need to follow up with cancer survivors long after their diagnoses to see whether they are still smoking and offer appropriate counseling, interventions, and possible medications to help them quit,” said Lee Westmaas, PhD, director of tobacco research at the American Cancer Society (ACS) and lead author of the study. Roy Herbst, MD, PhD, chief of medical oncology at Yale University and chair of the AACR Tobacco and Cancer Subcommittee, who was not involved with the study, said in an interview that the findings illustrate the scope of the problem. “Smoking can cause new mutations among cancer survivors that can lead to secondary and additional primary cancers. …
“Red meat and resistant starch have opposite effects on the colorectal cancer-promoting miRNAs, the miR-17-92 cluster,” said Karen J. Humphreys, PhD, a research associate at the Flinders Center for Innovation in Cancer at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. “This finding supports consumption of resistant starch as a means of reducing the risk associated with a high red meat diet.” “Total meat consumption in the USA, European Union, and the developed world has continued to increase from the 1960s, and in some cases has nearly doubled,” added Humphreys…
Half of all lung cancer patients are over 70 years old when first diagnosed, but studies have shown that these older patients are less likely to receive an accurate diagnosis. A correct assessment of the stage of a patient’s disease — how much their tumor has grown and spread — is key to ensuring they receive the right treatment. Non-invasive methods of checking whether a patient’s cancer has spread to their lymph nodes have limited sensitivity and until recently the only way to obtain a tissue sample was under general anaesthetic — limiting its use in elderly patients who often present with other conditions that may restrict the use of general anaesthesia. …
Cancer Research UK scientists have found a new use for an old drug by showing that it shrinks a particular type of pancreatic cancer tumour and stops it spreading, according to researchpublished in Gut*. The scientists, at the Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute and the University of Glasgow, treated mice with pancreatic cancers caused by known genetic faults with the drug rapamycin**. Previous clinical trials did not find this drug to be effective as a treatment for pancreatic cancers when it was given to all patients with different forms of the disease. But the team’s findings show that a particular type of pancreatic tumour – caused by a fault in the gene PTEN, which is involved in cell growth – may be responsive to the drug after all. …
The chemists, led by Professor Peter Scott at the University of Warwick, UK, have been able to produce molecules that have a similar structure to peptides which are naturally produced in the body to fight cancer and infection. Published in Nature Chemistry, the molecules produced in the research have proved effective against colon cancer cells in laboratory tests, in collaboration with Roger Phillips at the Institute for Cancer Therapeutics, Bradford, UK…
The finding, reported by Whitehead Institute scientists this week in the journal Cell, lends new insights into tumor biology with significant implications for the diagnosis, prognosis, and management of cancer patients. Over the past several years, researchers in the lab of Whitehead Member Susan Lindquist have been investigating the role the transcription factor HSF1 plays in supporting malignancy. In normal cells, stressful conditions, including those caused by heat, hypoxia, and toxins activate HSF1, which serves to maintain protein homeostasis and helps the cells endure tough times. Cancer cells, however, are capable of hijacking this heat-shock response to their own benefit. …
“There is a window of opportunity in the year after initial therapy to take an aggressive approach to spotting recurrences and intensively addressing them while they are still highly treatable,” says Joseph Califano, M.D., professor of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery, member of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, and medical director of the Milton J. Dance Jr. Head and Neck Center at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. “Until now, there has been no reliable biological way to identify which patients are at higher risk for recurrence, so these tests should greatly help do so,” he adds. …