Tag Archives: scientific

Computer simulation of blood vessel growth

"Better understanding of the processes that regulate the growth of blood vessels puts us in a position ultimately to develop new treatments for diseases related to blood vessel growth," and to better understand cancer metastasis, says bioengineering professor Jeff Weiss of the university’s Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute. Weiss and Lowell Edgar, a postdoctoral fellow in bioengineering, published their study Wednesday, Jan. 22, in the Public Library of Science’s online journal PLOS ONE. …

Multiple myeloma study uncovers genetic diversity within tumors

"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. …

Scientists show how cells protect DNA from catastrophic damage

An international team of researchers led by Professor Jiri Lukas from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, University of Copenhagen have unveiled a process that explains how DNA can be damaged during genome replication, due to the lack of a critical protein. Cells need to keep their genomic DNA unharmed to stay healthy and the scientists were able to visualize the process of DNA replication and damage directly in cells with an unprecedented detail. They discovered a fundamental mechanism of how proteins protect chromosomes while DNA is being copied (a process called DNA replication), which relies on a protein called RPA. …

Childhood cancer treatment takes toll on hearts of survivors

Cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death among U.S. children, but the rate of survival has increased significantly from a 5-year survival rate of 58.1 percent in 1975-77 to 83.1 percent in 2003-09. "Research has shown childhood cancer survivors face heart and other health problems decades after treatment," said Donald R. …

Chronic diseases hinder good cancer survival rates

How much diseases such as diabetes, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), arthritis, depression and cardiovascular disease mean for cancer survival depends on the type of cancer; but the overall picture is the same. Other diseases have a strong negative impact on both the one and five-year survival rate. For example, for breast cancer the five-year survival rate for patients without other diseases is 83 percent. For patients with one or two other chronic diseases the survival rate is 64 percent, while it is 50 percent for those with three or more diseases. …