Tag Archives: professor

Mouse study predicts cancer drug responsiveness in human tumors

UNC scientists used GEMMs to develop biomarkers for challenging molecular subtypes of human breast cancer, those for which there are fewer targets and therapies. Their work helps to further establish genetically engineered mouse models as predictors of human response to therapy. The molecular subtypes of breast cancer that the UNC group focused on — basal-like, luminal B, and claudin-low — are the most challenging types of breast cancer because these are tumors that don’t typically respond to drugs such as Herceptin or aromatase inhibitors. UNC was among the first to characterize these tumor subtypes, and this new report extends the understanding of them. …

Researchers pinpoint sources of fibrosis-promoting cells that ravage organs

Findings from research conducted at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston and continued at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center are reported in an advance online publication at Nature Medicine on June 30. "Answering a fundamental question about the origin of these cells by identifying four separate pathways involved in their formation allows us to look at ways to block those pathways to treat fibrosis," said senior author Raghu Kalluri, Ph.D., M.D., MD Anderson chair and professor of Cancer Biology. "It’s highly unlikely that a single drug will work." "In addition to being lethal in its own right, fibrosis is a precursor for the development of cancer and plays a role in progression, metastasis and treatment resistance," Kalluri said. …

Eating right, exercise may help prostate cancer patients reduce risk of aggressive tumors

Led by Lenore Arab, PhD, JCCC member and professor in the departments of medicine and biological chemistry, the researchers examined associations between adherence to WCRF recommendations and risk of highly aggressive prostate cancer among subjects enrolled in the North Carolina-Louisiana Prostate Cancer Project. …