"The mechanism behind the Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) that causes healthy cells to become malignant is not well understood despite two decades of intensive studies," said S. …
Although no fixed threshold is defined for the UK, in practice, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines suggest that patients need to have symptoms which indicate a five per cent risk or higher before further tests for most cancers are carried out. In the UK, one in three people in the UK will develop cancer during their lifetime…
"What this new work shows us is that when we treat an individual patient with multiple myeloma, it’s possible that we’re not just looking at one disease, but at many — in the same person, there could be cancer cells with different genetic make-ups," said co-senior author Todd Golub, the Broad Institute’s Chief Scientific Officer and Charles A. Dana Investigator in Human Cancer Genetics at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Golub is also a professor at Harvard Medical School and an investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute. …
The study, published in the journal Nature Immunology and led by Professor Uwe Vinkemeier in the University’s School of Life Sciences, centred on STAT1, a protein that can bind DNA and hence plays a vital role in regulating genes in the body. STAT1 responds to interferon signals, hormone-like molecules which control communication between cells to trigger defensive action by the body’s immune system when pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, or parasites are detected. …
The team, led by Nichola Garbett, Ph.D., published its findings online today in PLOS ONE. …
Brain metastasis is a terrifying complication of advanced breast cancer, with a grim prognosis and few treatment options. The cancer’s spread to the brain is often undetected until patients start to develop symptoms such as seizures, headaches, and trouble thinking…
Many research teams have found activation and increased signaling of a protein known as Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3 (STAT3) in different kinds of cancers, and it is associated with poor prognosis, said senior author Jennifer Grandis, M.D., Distinguished Professor of Otolaryngology, Pitt School of Medicine, and director of the Head and Neck Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), partner with UPMC CancerCenter. In adult tissues, STAT3 triggers the production of other proteins that promote the growth and survival of cancer cells. "Until now, the question of why STAT3 could be hyperactivated has gone unanswered," Dr…
In this early proof-of-concept study, the scientists have shown that they can target tumor blood vessels in mice without affecting healthy tissues. …
The formation of multiple schwannomas is one sign that a person has the genetic disorder called schwannomatosis, which is one of the three major forms of neurofibromatosis, besides neurofibromatosis types 1 and 2. The condition is so named because the tumors originate in Schwann cells that form in sheaths that insulate nerves to cause severe, chronic pain in many patients. To date, physicians cannot give most patients a confirmed diagnosis for schwannomatosis, even if they show symptoms, because changes in genes linked to the condition by past studies explain only about 50 percent of familial and less than 10 percent of sporadic cases. …
The finding is important for the field of epigenetics because Tet enzymes chemically modify DNA, changing signposts that tell the cell’s machinery "this gene is shut off" into other signs that say "ready for a change." Tet enzymes’ roles have come to light only in the last five years; they are needed for stem cells to maintain their multipotent state, and are involved in early embryonic and brain development and in cancer. The results, which could help scientists understand how Tet enzymes are regulated and look for drugs that manipulate them, were published online on Dec. …