Tag Archives: king

Genes that cause pancreatic cancer identified by new tool: Screening system in mice spots cancerous changes invisible to sequencing

The technique works by introducing sections of DNA called piggyBac transposons into the mouse genome. Transposons jump around within the genome, reinserting themselves at random and causing a different mutation in each cell of the mouse. This triggers cancer development, and tracking the transposon�s fingerprints in the tumours allows discovery of the affected cancer-causing genes. The PiggyBac tool was engineered for the first time to allow cancer induction in individual tissues within the mouse, and the method can now be used to study any type of cancer. …

Smoking still causes large proportion of cancer deaths in the United States

More than 30 years ago, a groundbreaking analysis by famed British researchers, Richard Doll and Richard Peto, calculated that 30 percent of all cancer deaths in the United States were caused by smoking. Since that time, no new estimate of this percentage has been published in the scientific literature. …

Narrow subset of cells is responsible for metastasis in multiple myeloma, study finds

The study suggests that attacking those subsets with targeted drugs may degrade the disease’s ability to spread throughout the bone marrow of affected patients, the authors say. The discovery was made by developing a mouse model of the disease that enabled researchers to track which of 15 genetic groups — or subclones — of myeloma cells spread beyond their initial site in the animals’ hind legs. By labeling the different subgroups with fluorescent dyes, researchers determined that just one of the subclones was responsible for the disease metastasis. They then compared the pattern of gene abnormalities in the initial myeloma tissue and the metastatic tumors. …

Smoking and higher mortality in men

Smoking is a risk factor for various diseases, not only lung cancer. Epidemiological data show that male smokers have a greater risk of developing cancer outside the respiratory tract than female smokers. In the present study, which is the result of an international collaboration, the researchers discovered an association between smoking and genetic damage among men that might explain this sex difference. ‘We have previously in 2014 demonstrated an association between loss of the Y chromosome in blood and greater risk for cancer…

Mapping the interactome: Proteomics reveals the E-cadherin interaction network

Unlocking the complexity of cell adhesion Many biological processes depend on the ability of cells to stick to one another. The formation of multicellular organisms and precise embryonic development rely on this property, as does the maintenance of healthy tissue. Defects in the ability of cells to adhere to one another have been found in many diseases, such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular disease. In the case of cancer, ineffective cell adhesion allows tumour cells to detach and invade other tissues, thereby spreading cancer throughout the body. …

3-D mammography improves cancer detection in dense breasts — ScienceDaily

Breasts are considered dense if they have a lot of fibrous or glandular tissue but not much fatty tissue. Research has shown that dense breasts are more likely to develop cancer, a problem compounded by the fact that cancer in dense breasts can be difficult to detect on mammograms. Other imaging modalities like ultrasound and MRI are often used to help find cancers that can’t be seen on mammograms, but both modalities have higher rates of false-positive findings, which are suspicious findings that turn out not to be cancer. This higher false-positive rate often results in more tests and unnecessary biopsies, making MRI and ultrasound expensive to implement in high-volume screening programs, according to study lead author Per Skaane, M.D., Ph.D., from the Department of Radiology at Oslo University Hospital in Oslo, Norway. …

Genetic testing could improve breast cancer prevention — ScienceDaily

Their study showed that prevention strategies could be improved by testing not only as currently for major cancer predisposition genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2 — which identify a small percentage of women at very high risk — but also by factoring in data on multiple gene variants that individually have only a small effect on risk, but are more common in the population. The research was carried out by researchers at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, US — and is published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study received funding from The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the National Cancer Institute. Researchers stressed that their study was a computer modelling analysis and would need to be confirmed by further research aimed at validating the models they used and assessing real-life prevention approaches…

Need to encourage patients to screen for colon cancer? Try a lottery

Patients who were told they had a 1-in-10 chance of winning $50 were more likely to complete home stool blood tests that help screen for colon cancer, according to a new study led by a researcher at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and University of Michigan. The findings appear in a special issue of Annals of Internal Medicine…

Chlamydia knock out body’s own cancer defense

Hundreds of mutations occur every day in almost every cell in our body. The protein p53 is then activated in order to limit these changes in the genome: either the cell repairs the damaged DNA or, if that is not possible, it triggers the cellular suicide program. In this way, cells are normally protected against the development of cancer. As the Berlin-based team at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology reported last year, chlamydial infections lead to a drastic increase in the mutation rate. …