Tag Archives: nature

One in five women with ovarian cancer has inherited predisposition

Most women in the study would have been unaware of a genetic predisposition to ovarian cancer because they didn’t have strong family histories that suggested it. The research, published Jan. 22 in Nature Communications, is the first large-scale analysis of the combined contributions of inherited and acquired mutations in a major cancer type. …

The scent of cancer: Detecting cancer with fruit fly’s antenna

In an article, published on 6 January in the international scientific journal Scientific Report by the Nature Publishing Group, the researchers of the University of Konstanz and the University La Sapienza in Rome, Italy, describe how characteristic patterns in the olfactory receptors of transgenic Drosophilae can be recorded when activated by scent. Not only could a clear distinction be made between healthy cells and cancer cells; moreover, groupings could be identified among the different cancer cells. "What really is new and spectacular about this result is the combination of objective, specific and quantifiable laboratory results and the extremely high sensitivity of a living being that cannot be matched by electronic noses or gas chromatography," explains Giovanni Galizia. Natural olfactory systems are better suited to detecting the very small differences in scent between healthy cells and cancer cells. …

New horizons in radiotherapy?

This work, which sheds new light on the behavior of matter at the atomic scale and which could have important benefits in medicine, is published in the journal Nature. The radiotherapy currently used in nearly half of cancer treatments irradiates biological tissue using a radiation with a wide energy spectrum in order to destroy the cancerous cells. The work of the international team headed by two CNRS researchers from the Laboratoire de Chimie Physique — Matière et Rayonnement (CNRS/UPMC) should make it possible to improve the precision and quality of treatment by more finely targeting the range of energy used. …

Scientists identify factors that trigger ALT-ernative cancer cell growth

One strategy, which occurs in about 90 percent of cancers, requires increase production of a telomere-elongating enzyme called telomerase. A less understood strategy, employed by the remaining 10-15 percent of cancers, is called ALT (for Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres). Previously, biologists knew ALT existed simply because tumor cells could rebuild long, albeit unkempt-looking telomeres without telomerase. …