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New vaccination guideline for immunocompromised patients

The new guideline aims to aid primary care physicians and specialists who treat immunocompromised patients (people with compromised immune systems, such as those with cancer, HIV infection and Crohn’s disease), and those who live with immunocompromised patients. "The guideline provides ‘one-stop shopping’ for clinicians caring for children and adults with compromised immune systems and includes recommendations and evidence for all vaccinations, from influenza to chicken pox," said Dr. Rubin…

Predicting outcome for high-dose IL-2 therapy in cancer patients

Previous studies indicate that regulatory T cell (Treg) populations increase in patients undergoing HD IL-2 therapy, and in this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Lazlo Radvanyi and colleagues at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center performed an in depth analysis of Treg populations in melanoma patients undergoing HD IL-2 therapy. The authors identified a distinct population of Treg cells that expressed the inducible T cell costimulator (ICOS) that was highly proliferative following the first cycle of HD IL-2. Furthermore, melanoma patients with greater levels of ICOS+ Tregs in response to HD IL-2 had better clinical outcomes, suggesting that this Treg population may be useful to predict which patients would benefit from HD IL-2…

Blocking antioxidants in cancer cells reduces tumor growth in mice

In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Navdeep Chandel and colleagues from Northwestern University report the effects of a SOD1 pharmacological inhibitor on non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. The inhibitor, called ATN-224, stunted the growth of human NSCLC cells in culture and induced their death. The researchers also found that ATN-224 inhibited other antioxidant proteins, which caused high levels of hydrogen peroxide inside the cells. The ability of cancer cells to produce hydrogen peroxide was required for ATN-224-dependent effects, because hydrogen peroxide activated cell death pathways. …

Why tumors become resistant to chemotherapy

Many mechanisms contribute to explain this effect called "acquired resistance," but today the group of Manel Esteller, Director of Epigenetics and Cancer Biology at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), ICREA researcher and Professor of Genetics at the University of Barcelona, describes in the official Journal of the National Cancer Research Center in the United States, The Journal of The National Cancer Institute, the existence of epigenetic differences that explain the lack of response of the tumor recurs. "We studied colon cancer cells that were initially sensitive to oxaliplatin drug and then became insensitive to this drug and we found that resistant tumors had inactivated a gene (SRBC) in their DNA" says Manel Esteller "the loss of activity supposedly happens in a gene involved in DNA repair. Thus these tumor cells, when receiving the drug, quickly repair the effect thereof and do not die. Studying nearly two hundred patients with colon cancer also found that inactivation of the gene is associated with poorer survival of these people despite treatment. …

Killer cocktail fights brain cancer

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive form of brain cancer, and current treatments only modestly prolong patient survival. Immune cells called T cells have the capacity to attack and kill tumor cells, but tumors can counteract this attack by creating an environment that dampens T cell activity. T cells have ways of limiting their own activation (and thus autoimmunity), one of which is to express inhibitory cell surface proteins upon activation. In other cancer models, strategies to block these inhibitory proteins have been shown to reinvigorate T cell activation and thus promote tumor regression…

Hallmark for development of testicular tumors found in genes

In human spermatozoa, these tiny RNAs are epigenetically regulated (by changes in the genome that do not alter the DNA sequence, such as DNA methylation) and play a critical role in male germline development. Importantly, these RNAs have also been detected in human cancer cells. In a work published in the January 2014 issue of Epigenetics, which is entirely devoted to "Non-coding RNAs in Epigenetic Regulation," the researchers asked if in their natural functional context (the normal human testis) these small RNAs undergo aberrant epigenetic regulation, compromising their function and contributing to the transformation of cells into testicular tumor cells. …

First breast biopsy system offering real-time monitoring, guidance

First diagnostic tool is clinical imaging (mainly Mammography and Ultrasound) but suspicious findings usually require a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis; 2% of women who undergo a screening mammogram will require some type of breast biopsy (1,3 million women each year in Europe). Breast biopsy is an image-guided procedure that can use different imaging technologies. Apart from US-guided biopsy, which is a manual procedure with limited indications, all current solutions are based on discrete scans of static images taken at different steps during the procedure. …

Women prescribed hormone therapy should use caution when taking apigenin supplement

A new study shows that when the supplement apigenin is ingested in a diet at the same concentration as subjects received during IV injections in previous studies — the benefits were reversed leading to a higher incidence of cancerous tumors in subjects receiving progestin. "Typically, hormone replacement therapies improve the lives of menopausal women and achieve very good results," said Salman Hyder, the Zalk Endowed Professor in Tumor Angiogenesis and professor of biomedical sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine and the Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center. "However, research has proven that in women receiving therapies that involve a combination of the natural component estrogen and the synthetic progestin, a higher incidence of breast cancer tumors can occur." Hyder explains that many women normally have benign lesions in breast tissue. These lesions don’t typically form tumors until they receive the "trigger" that attracts blood vessels to cells essentially feeding the lesions causing them to form and expand — in this case, progestin is the trigger…

Higher than normal levels of Vitamin B12 may indicate cancer risk

To assess the association between high Cbl levels and risk of cancer of any type, Johan Arendt, BSc, of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and the Department of Clinical Biochemistry of Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, and colleagues used Danish Medical registries to review the records of 333,667 patients without cancer who had been referred for Cbl testing and to estimate the incidence of cancer in this population from 1998 to 2010. The researchers excluded patients who had a cancer diagnosis before the date of plasma measurement and those who were receiving Cbl therapy. They found that the risk of cancer overall increased with higher Cbl levels, especially during the first year after measurement and for those with levels > 800pmol/L. …