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Male Sex Hormones Cooperate With Breast Cancer Gene To Suppress Tumors

BRCA-2, a gene linked with breast and ovarian cancer, cooperates with male sex hormones to enhance its ability to activate transcription of genes, which may suppress tumor formation in normal cells, Salk Institute researchers have found. The study, published in the June 10 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides details on how the normal form of the gene may work, and how mutant forms of BRCA-2 may malfunction and therefore likely contribute to the development of breast cancer. It also gives greater insight into the causes of male breast cancer. BRCA-2 is one of two genes (the other is BRCA-1) linked to at least 10 percent of all breast cancers; the mutant form appears in nearly all male breast cancers.

Thalidomide-like drug appears to help bone cancer patients

A drug similar to thalidomide has been found to be promising with fewer side effects for treating patients with recurrent multiple myeloma, an incurable form of bone marrow cancer, according to early data from a clinical study. The drug, an analog of thalidomide, was developed to be more potent than thalidomide, while reducing some of thalidomide’s dose limiting side effects. Laboratory studies have shown that CC-5013 not only kills myeloma cells by triggering their innate self-destruct mechanism but also inhibits the myeloma cells ability to localize and grow in the bone marrow. Moreover, it appears to have anti-angiogenic effects and stimulates the immune system to attack myeloma.

Cholestrol Drug Could Lead to New Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis

While cautioning that their findings still must be evaluated in humans, University of California, San Francisco and Stanford University Medical Center researchers report that the cholesterol-lowering drug atorvastatin (Lipitor) significantly improved, prevented relapses or reversed paralysis in mice with an experimental disease that closely resembles multiple sclerosis. The study, reported in the November 7 issue of Nature, was conducted in mice with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), the standard animal model for multiple sclerosis.