Tag Archives: science

International study allows better prediction of risk of hereditary cancer

The study, published in Nature Genetics have carried out clinical and researchers who are part of the INSIGHT (International Society for Gastroeintestinal Hereditary Tumours ) . Coordinated by Maurizio Genuardi , University of Florence, and Finlay Macrae , Royal Melbourne Hospital , at work and have participated Capellá Marta Gabriel Pineda, Hereditary Cancer Program at the Catalan Institute of Oncology ( ICO- IDIBELL) . The research is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association Against Cancer . Hereditary cancer All cancers are caused by abnormalities in the genetic material of cells , that make them lose their function and become malignant …

Researchers discover ovarian cancer biomarker

A CWRU research team led by Analisa DiFeo, an assistant professor of General Medical Science-Oncology at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, found that the biomarker miR-181a is a molecular driver of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). The research team also found that elevated levels of miR-181a in ovarian tumors are associated with chemotherapy resistance and disease progression. "By looking at the expression of this microRNA in tumor samples, we get an idea which women may respond to standard chemotherapy and which are at a high risk for recurrence," DiFeo said. "This helps guide treatment decisions and improve survival rates." In the past, researchers have been unable to predict how EOC patients will respond to treatment…

Spontaneous fusion with macrophages empowers cancer cells to spread

The researchers, Alain Silk, Ph.D., Melissa Wong, Ph.D., and colleagues at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland followed the work of German pathologist Otto Aichel, who suggested in 1911 that a cancer cell under attack by a white blood cell might spontaneously fuse with that cell to produce a hybrid cell with chromosomal abnormalities that could lead to cancer. Although Aichel’s theory was dismissed by his contemporaries, recent discoveries about the broader role of cell fusion in tissue homeostasis and regeneration have revived scientific interest in his ideas. Today there is strong evidence of fusion between cancer and normal cells in human cancer, but it has not been apparent whether cell fusion could provide cancer cells with a selective advantage that enhances cancer progression…

Partially blocking blood vessels’ energy source may stop cancer growth, blindness, other conditions

"Our findings reveal a new strategy to block blood vessel growth in various pathological conditions by depriving them of energy and building blocks necessary for growth," says senior author Dr. Peter Carmeliet of the University of Leuven and the Vesalius Research Center, VIB in Belgium. While current strategies to thwart pathological blood vessel formation focus primarily on inhibiting vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), this latest research centers around blocking glycolysis, the process that endothelial cells rely on for generating most of the energy they need to multiply and migrate. …

Novel cancer cell DNA damage repair mechanism unveiled

The new findings explain partially why cancer cells, unlike normal cells, fail to die as a result of DNA damaging insults, and how this mechanism causes new genetic mutations in cancer cells. This new information directly benefits cancer research. Now that scientists understand the repair mechanism, they are better equipped to develop drug therapies that specifically target cancerous cells. …

Biomarker linked to aggressive breast cancers, poor outcomes in African-Americans

"Our data indicate that HSET represents a potential new biomarker for poor breast cancer outcome among African-American women with the disease," said Ritu Aneja, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Biology at Georgia State University in Atlanta. "Using this biomarker effectively could give oncologists critical new information and potentially save lives by allowing earlier recognition of more aggressive breast cancers in African-American women, with the subsequent use of more customized treatment regimens to better manage disease." African-American women are often diagnosed with breast cancer at a younger age than non-Hispanic white women and are more likely to have cancers that spread, recur, or result in death. Identification of biomarkers that can help clinicians predict if African-American women will have aggressive cancer is a high priority, according to Aneja. …

Malignant cells adopt different pathway for genome duplication

For one of our cells to give birth to two daughter cells, it must first replicate its DNA which consists of around 6.4 billion pairs of nucleotides. The double-stranded DNA opens up like a zipper, producing a ‘replication fork’ upon which a group of enzymes move about. Present in different regions in the DNA, the forks move with the progression of the replication. Cell proliferation is controlled in particular by specific genes known as proto-oncogenes…

Predicting ovarian cancer survival by counting tumor-attacking immune cells

Scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have developed a new method for counting a special class of cancer-fighting cells — called tumor-infiltrating T lymphocytes, or TILs — reliably, quickly and cheaply in patients with early stage and advanced ovarian cancer. They describe their findings online Dec. 4 in Science Translational Medicine. …