Tag Archives: research

Prostate cancer’s penchant for copper may be a fatal flaw — ScienceDaily

Researchers at Duke Medicine have found a way to kill prostate cancer cells by delivering a trove of copper along with a drug that selectively destroys the diseased cells brimming with the mineral, leaving non-cancer cells healthy. The combination approach, which uses two drugs already commercially available for other uses, could soon be tested in clinical trials among patients with late-stage disease. “This proclivity for copper uptake is something we have known could be an Achilles’ heel in prostate cancer tumors as well as other cancers,” said Donald McDonnell, Ph.D., chairman of the Duke Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology and senior author of a study published Oct. …

New, precise way to turn genes on and off

The key to the advance is a new invention, called the SunTag, a series of molecular hooks for hanging multiple copies of biologically active molecules onto a single protein scaffold used to target genes or other molecules. Compared to molecules assembled without these hooks, those incorporating the SunTag can greatly amplify biological activity. …

Immune cells in liver drive fatty liver disease, liver cancer

These liver diseases (NAFLD and NASH), along with chronic viral infections, are the most common causes of liver cancer, or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In the United States, about 90 million people suffer from NAFLD. In Europe, the figure is more than 40 million, and even in threshold countries like India and China, the number of people affected is rising due to increasingly unhealthy lifestyles. More worrying, in all of the above mentioned states the numbers of NAFLD and NASH patients is constantly increasing. …

How metastases develop in the liver

But during development of metastases, the control function of this inhibitor appears not only to fail but to swing in the opposite direction and to actually promote the formation of metastases. Observations in numerous cancer patients have shown that high levels of the inhibitor TIMP-1 in the blood did not slow the spread of cancer. On the contrary, it actually hastened the progression of the disease…

Discovery of cellular snooze button advances cancer, biofuel research

The discovery that the protein CHT7 is a likely repressor of cellular quiescence, or resting state, is published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This cellular switch, which influences algae’s growth and oil production, also wields control of cellular growth — and tumor growth — in humans…

Unusual skin cancer linked to chronic allergy from metal orthopedic implant

Metal alloys help make orthopedic implants stronger and more durable. But people with sensitivity to these metals, which include nickel, cobalt and chromium, can develop chronic inflammation that promotes the development of skin cancers, report researchers at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis…

RNA molecules found in urine, tissue that detect prostate cancer

According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer in American men (behind skin cancer), and the second-leading cause of cancer death in men (after lung cancer). In 2014, more than 230,000 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed…

Potential link between breast cancer genes, salivary gland cancer

Although salivary gland cancer is rare, this retrospective study suggests it occurs 17 times more often in people with inherited mutations in genes called BRCA1 and BRCA2, than those in the general population. “Further study is needed to confirm this preliminary result, but I believe that a BRCA-positive patient with a lump in a salivary gland should have that lesion evaluated as soon as possible,” says co-author Theodoros Teknos, MD, professor and chair of otolaryngology, director of head and neck oncologic surgery, and the David E. Schuller, MD, and Carole H. Schuller Chair in Otolaryngology at the OSUCCC — James. …