The findings, published in the journal Lancet Oncology, investigated the timing of trastuzumab administration with anthracycline and taxane chemotherapy. "In a previous MD Anderson study concurrent administration of trastuzumab with chemotherapy, including anthracyclines, demonstrated high pathologic complete response rates in breast cancer patients with HER-2-positive disease," Buzdar said. …
Now, a team of researchers led by Mei R. Fu, PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, associate professor of Chronic Disease Management at the New York University College of Nursing (NYUCN), offers supporting evidence for using Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) ratios to assess Lymphedema. The study, "L-DEX Ratio in Detecting Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema: Reliability, Sensitivity, and Specificity," published in Lymphology, argues because the low frequency electronic current cannot travel through cell membranes, it provides a direct measure of lymph fluid outside the cells. This allows for a more accurate assessment of lymphedema using a Lymphedema Index named L-Dex ratio. …
"We all have a unique composition of hereditary variants of genes that affects how both our body and the tumor react to cancer treatment," Ola Myklebost tells us. He is Professor of Molecular Biology in the Department of Biosciences at the University of Oslo, and also holds a post at the Institute for Cancer Research at Oslo University Hospital. Professor Myklebost has now received a grant of NOK 75 million from the Research Council of Norway to develop the idea for next generation cancer treatment — personalized cancer therapy, directed specifically towards the various mutation faults in cancerous tumors…
The team, led by Professor Yoshiaki Ito of CSI Singapore, showed that RUNX3 is a major component in a well-established tumor suppression mechanism involving p53, a tumor suppressor protein that regulates cell proliferation and prevent cancer. In addition, the research team also demonstrated that RUNX3 plays a pivotal role in preventing early tumor formation. Although the current study focused on lung cancer, the results help to explain the development of other types of human cancers. These novel findings were published in leading scientific journal Cancer Cell on 11 November 2013. …
TWEAK is a cytokine, or soluble protein, that controls many cellular activities and acts by binding to a cell surface receptor known as Fn14. TWEAK binding to Fn14 triggers a wide range of cellular activities, including blood clotting, inflammation, cell proliferation, cell migration, and the creation of new blood vessels. While many of these activities are beneficial — for example, helping to heal a cut — excessive TWEAK-Fn14 activation also has been linked to tissue damage and degradation, including autoimmune diseases, as well as the survival, migration and invasion of cancer cells. "Our results show that the TWEAK-Fn14 interaction is a viable drug target, and they provide the foundation for further exploration of this system in researching invasive cancers," said Dr. …
Female family physicians are twice as likely to order the HPV test (in addition to screening for cervical cancer through pap smears) for low-risk women aged 30-65 than their male counterparts, according to the findings published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. …
tumors with lower levels of oxygen — known as hypoxia — often respond less well to radiation therapy. There are several agents that can be given to patients before radiotherapy to reduce hypoxia, but these are not given as standard. Being able to measure how well-oxygenated an individual’s tumor is would give doctors a valuable way of identifying which patients might benefit from treatment with hypoxia reducing agents before radiotherapy. Hypoxia has previously been investigated by looking at the expression of certain genes, and Manchester researchers have come up with a genetic profile for tumors that should indicate the overall level of oxygenation…
Now, University of Pennsylvania researchers have revealed how a reduction in mitochondrial DNA content leads human breast cancer cells to take on aggressive, metastatic properties. The work, published in the journal Oncogene, breaks new ground in understanding why some cancers progress and spread faster than others and may offer clinicians a biomarker that would distinguish patients with particularly aggressive forms of disease, helping personalize treatment approaches. The study was led by the Penn School of Veterinary Medicine’s Manti Guha, a senior research investigator, and Narayan Avadhani, Harriet Ellison Woodward Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Animal Biology. Additional Penn Vet collaborators included Satish Srinivasan, Gordon Ruthel, Anna K. …
The multidisciplinary team discovered that a cholesterol metabolite called 27-hydroxycholesterol, or 27HC, promotes tumor growth in estrogen-receptor positive breast cancers, which are the most common type of breast cancer. Estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer was previously believed to be stimulated primarily by the female sex hormone estrogen and it is commonly treated using endocrine-based medications that starve tumors of estrogen. The discovery of 27HC as another driver of breast cancer may explain why endocrine-based therapy is often unsuccessful, providing a new target for therapy, the researchers say. "This information can be used to develop new therapies that inhibit 27HC action or production, or increase its metabolism, in effect cutting the cancer off from a key growth stimulator," said senior author Dr…
In research published recently in the journal Oncogene, Murray Korc, M.D., the Myles Brand Professor of Cancer Research at the Indiana University School of Medicine and a researcher at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, showed that an RNA molecule — microRNA-10b, or miR-10b — is present at high levels in the blood of most pancreatic cancer patients. Consequently, miR-10b could serve as a diagnostic marker as well as help physicians determine the disease’s aggressiveness…