The most common type of breast cancer in older women — estrogen and progesterone receptor (ER/PR) positive breast cancer — has been linked to a protein that fends off aging-related cellular damage.
A new study led by Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer…
JUPITER, FL, December 22, 2010 — A scientist from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute has discovered a molecular switch that controls the synthesis of ribosomes. Ribosomes are the large machineries inside all living cells that pro…
PHILADELPHIA — It took 12 years and a creation of a highly sophisticated transgenic mouse, but researchers at Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson have finally proven a long suspected theory: Inflammation in the breast is key to the development and p…
PHILADELPHIA — An investigational DNA methylation test could alter the screening landscape for colorectal cancer, according to data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research special conference on Colorectal Cancer: Biology to Ther…
Researchers have produced the first laboratory evidence to show that a cell’s possession of an abnormal numbers of chromosomes contributes to the development of cancers. Their report on the role of this chromosomal instability, known as aneuploidy, appears in today’s online edition of the Feb. 3 Journal of Cell Biology. Because 85 percent of human cancer cells possess an abnormal number of chromosomes, researchers have long been curious about the role of aneuploidy in the multistep cancer process.
Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have made a discovery that could help solve a mystery in cancer biology: how a sunburn acquired during a childhood day at the beach can develop into a deadly tumor decades later. The scientists report in the Feb. 4 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the sun’s damaging ultraviolet (UV) rays target a series of biochemical signals inside the young skin cell, impairing the cell’s ability to control its proliferation. The paper currently is available on the journal’s web site.
A team of scientists has shrunk tumors or delayed their growth in animal studies by using radiation to enable a drug to “zero in” and block the tumor blood vessels. The work, reported in the January issue of the journal Cancer Cell, is a model for what might be achieved in patients by using radiation to activate drug targets in tumors. “We can now use combinations of chemotherapy and radiation to improve the anti-cancer effect for many of our patients, but the side effects can be great,” said Dr. Dennis Hallahan, chair of Radiation Oncology at Vanderbilt- Ingram. “With this approach, we hope we can ultimately deliver drugs directly and selectively to the tumor alone, and reduce side effects.”
The Stanford University School of Medicine announced on Dec. 10 plans to form an Institute for Cancer/Stem Cell Biology and Medicine. This multidisciplinary institute will study both stem cell biology and cancer biology, and will attempt to apply knowledge learned from stem cell biology to new treatments for cancer.
Q: Is Stanford planning on cloning human embryos?
A: No. The new institute will study adult stem cell lines generated from individuals with specific diseases such as cancer or neurodegenerative disorders. The institute will also investigate two different ways of generating new embryonic stem cell lines ? initially in mice. This may be extended to human cell lines if the techniques prove useful.
An association between a common human virus and colon cancer has been established by a group of researchers in the U.S., suggesting a possible role for it in the development of cancer in the human intestinal tract. The so-called JC virus most likely infects humans through the upper respiratory tract and remains in a latent stage in most people throughout their lives, and, in some cases, causes minor sub-clinical problems. But in people whose immune systems are depressed, either through chemotherapy given to organ transplant recipients or an illness such as AIDS, JCV can become active and may contribute to cancer in the brain or cause the fatal demyelinating disease Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy (PML).