Cancer

Viral DNA sequence a possible trigger for breast cancer

A small sequence of DNA in the envelope (Env) protein of a mouse breast tumor virus (called MMTV) can transform breast cells into cancer cells, according to a study by Katz et al. in the February 7 issue of The Journal of Experimental Medicine. The ability of this motif to transform cells single-handedly suggests that viral infection may be an important and previously unrecognized trigger for bre...

Adding Radiation Therapy To Chemotherapy Improves Survival In Patients With High-risk Breast Cancer

For patients with high-risk breast cancer treated with radical mastectomy and adjuvant chemotherapy, the addition of radiation therapy leads to better survival outcomes with few long-term toxic effects, according to a 20-year follow-up of a randomized trial, which appears in the January 19 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The British Columbia randomized radiation the...

Jump-starting T Cells In Skin Cancer

Advanced melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, can be successfully treated in some cases by vaccinating patients with tumor proteins. How these vaccines work and why they are only effective in some patients remains unclear. Pierre Coulie and colleagues now show, in two articles in the January 17 issue of the Journal of Experimental Medicine, that these vaccines work by increasing the num...

Deficient DNA Repair Capacity Associated With Increased Risk Of Breast Cancer

Deficiencies in the ability of cells to repair damaged DNA are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, according to a new study in the January 19 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. is the system of defenses designed to protect the integrity of the genome. Studies have suggested that deficiency...

Enzyme, lost in most mammals, is shown to protect against UV-induced skin cancer

In a finding that broadens our insight intothe cause of certain kinds of UV-induced skin cancer, researchers atErasmus University Medical Center (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) haveemployed an evolutionarily ancient enzyme-repair system to identify theprincipal type of DNA damage responsible for the onset of skin-tumordevelopment. The researchers' findings also suggest that this enzymesystem m...

It's not all genetic: Common epigenetic problem doubles cancer risk in mice

In experiments with mice, a team of scientists from the United States, Sweden and Japan has discovered that having a double dose of one protein is sufficient to change the normal balance of cells within the lining of the colon, thereby doubling the risk that a cancer-causing genetic mutation will trigger a tumor there. Roughly 10 percent of people have this double protein dose as well. In...

Columbia research lifts major hurdle to gene therapy for cancer

Researchers at Columbia University MedicalCenter have discovered a way to overcome one of the major hurdles ingene therapy for cancer: its tendency to kill normal cells in theprocess of eradicating cancer cells.In a new study published in the Jan. 25 issue of the Proceedings of theNational Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the researchers demonstrated thatthe technique works by incorporating it i...

Fox Chase Cancer Center scientists identify immune-system mutation

A team of Fox Chase Cancer Center scientists led by immunologist Dietmar J. Kappes, Ph.D., has identified the genetic mutation that keeps a mouse strain from developing white blood cells, or lymphocytes, called helper T cells. The report by Kappes and his colleagues appears in the Feb. 24 issue of Nature. Kappes' laboratory first discovered the mice with this naturally occurring defect in...

Combination therapy boosts effectiveness of telomere-directed cancer cell death

Sometimes apotential target for a drug seems very promising on paper; things areoften very different in reality. Its the case of telomerase inhibitorsto treat cancer; they are supposed to strip the "immortal" (able todivide indefinitely) aspect of cancer cells. Yet, something in the cellseems to block their function, preventing them to inhibit completelythe...

Breakthrough Microarray-based Technology for the Study of Cancer

A new development in the analysis of cancerhas been announced by Agilent Technologies. The company has reported aninnovative method that enables the rapid advance of microarray-basedcomparative genomic studies in cancer. According to the reportpublished in the December 24, 2004 issue of the Proceedings of theNational Academy of Science (PNAS) in collaboration with the NationalHuman Genome R...

Mitochondrial DNA mutations play significant role in prostate cancer

Mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) playan important role in the development of prostate cancer, according toresearch by scientists at Emory University School of Medicine and theUniversity of California, Irvine. The findings are published onlinethis week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(PNAS). Mitochondrial DNA, which is separate from nuclear DNA, is foundin the hun...

Yale Scientists Find MicroRNA Regulates Ras Cancer Gene

Research in the laboratory of Assistant Professor Frank J. Slack at Yale University has identified a new way that a familiar gene is regulated in lung cancer, presenting new possibilities for diagnosis and treatment. The work is reported in March issues of the journals Cell and Developmental Cell. The oncogene Ras is out of control in about 20 percent of cancers where it is over-expressed...

New imaging method gives early indication if brain cancer therapy is effective, U-M study shows

A special type of MRI scan that measures the flow of water molecules through the brain can help doctors determine early in the course of brain cancer regimen if a patient's tumor will shrink, a new study shows. Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center developed the assessment, which they call a functional diffusion map. They used a magnetic resonance imaging sc...

BRCA1 causes ovarian cancer through indirect, biochemical route

Mutated BRCA1 genes cause ovarian cancer indirectly, by interfering with the biochemical signals one ovarian cell sends to another, according to a team of researchers led by scientists at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. Their work is being published in the March 29 issue of the journal Current Biology.</p...

Researchers identify target for cancer drugs

For nearly a decade, scientists have been trying to fully understand a particular communication pathway inside of cells that contributes to many malignant brain and prostate cancers. While scientists have identified elements of this pathway, other key components have remained a mystery. Researchers at Whitehead Institute now have discovered a missing puzzle piece, a finding that may present drug...

Fundamental Finding Yields Insight into Stem Cells, Cancer; Opens Door to Drug Discovery

Few things about growing older are asinevitable and obvious as “going gray,?yet scientists have been unableto explain the precise cause of this usually unwelcome transformation.In a report posted today on the Web site of the journal Science,researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s HospitalBoston say they have found the cellular cause of graying hair whileinvestigating th...

Weizmann Institute scientists develop a new approach for directing treatment to metastasized prostate cancer in the bones.

Few things about growing older are asinevitable and obvious as “going gray,?yet scientists have been unableto explain the precise cause of this usually unwelcome transformation.In a report posted today on the Web site of the journal Science,researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s HospitalBoston say they have found the cellular cause of graying hair whileinvestigating th...

First 'atlas' of key brain genes could speed research on cancer, neurological diseases

Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institutehave compiled the first atlas showing the locations of crucial generegulators, or switches that determine how different parts of the braindevelop ?and, in some cases, develop abnormally or malfunction.The scientists say the map will accelerate research on brain tumors andneurological diseases that result from mutations in these switch genes?called...

U-M scientists find genes that control growth of common skin cancer

Scientists at the University of Michigan'sComprehensive Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute haveidentified genes that promote the growth and recurrence of skin cancer.Andrzej Dlugosz, M.D., a professor of dermatology in the U-M MedicalSchool, and colleagues at the University of Michigan and the NationalCancer Institute examined the functions of the Hedgehog (Hh) signalingpathway...

First-ever Compounds To Target Only Metastatic Cells Are Highly Effective Against Breast, Prostate, And Colon Cancers

Two compounds that zero in on cancer cells spreading throughout the body, while ignoring primary tumor cells, could someday give doctors a whole new weapon in the fight against tough-to-treat metastatic disease, according to Weill Medical College of Cornell University researchers. The compounds, called synthetic migrastatin analogues, prevented 91 to 99 percent of metastatic breast cancer...

Gene Vaccine Protects Mice Against Development Of Her2/neu Breast Cancer

Based on successful animal studies, a novelvaccine that uses immune cells as factories to produce Her2/neu proteinmay offer a way to treat some human breast cancers, say researchers atThe University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. [Ed : is a protein often present / surexpressed in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/...

Deficiency of growth hormone and IGF-1 reduces cancer and kidney disease, but creates other problems

Deficiencies of growth hormone and similar compounds may reduce cancer and kidney disease late in life, but also may lead to cartilage degeneration and impaired memory and learning ability, according to research at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and four other institutions. The researchers used a rat model to explore the effects of growth hormone and another compound, IGF-1...

An entropy-based gene selection method for cancer classification using microarray data

Accurate diagnosis of cancer subtypes remains a challenging problem. Building classifiers based on gene expression data is a promising approach; yet the selection of non-redundant but relevant genes is difficult. The selected gene set should be small enough to allow diagnosis even in regular clinical laboratories and ideally identify genes involved in cancer-specific regulatory pathways. Here an...

UCLA scientists transform HIV into cancer-seeking missile

Camouflaging an impotent AIDS virus in new clothes enables it to hunt down metastasized melanoma cells in living mice, reports a UCLA AIDS Institute study in the Feb. 13 online edition of Nature Medicine. The scientists added the protein that makes fireflies glow to the virus in order to track its journey from the bloodstream to new tumors in the animals' lungs. "For the past 20 years, ge...

New Breast Cancer Test Could Save Lives

A team of researchers at the University of Bristol is developing a revolutionary new test to detect breast cancer at an early stage. If successful, this test will be effective for women of all ages; given that breast cancer is the largest killer of women between the ages of 35-55 in Europe, the test could have a dramatic effect on the number of deaths from this disease. The test, which ut...

Estrogen-like Component of Plastic Stimulates Growth of Certain Prostate Cancer Cells

An estrogen-like chemicalcommonly used to synthesize plastic food containers has been shown toencourage the growth of a specific category of prostate cancer cell,potentially affecting the treatment efficacy for a subset of prostatecancers.According to a study published in the January 1 issue of CancerResearch, such prostate cancer cells proved to be vulnerable toexposure to the chemical BP...

Novel ultrafast laser detection of cancer cells also may improve understanding of stem cells

To investigate tumors, pathologists currently rely on labor-intensive microscopic examination, using century-old cell-staining methods that can take days to complete and may give false readings. A lightning-fast laser technique, led by Sandia National Laboratories researcher Paul Gourley, has provided laboratory demonstrations of accurate, real-time, high-throughput identification of live...

Breast Cancer May Be 'Uniquely Sensitive' To Inhibitors Of PI3K Pathway

"Because up to 75 percent of breast cancerpatients have an abnormality in a specific cell signaling pathway,drugs that target different molecules along that pathway may beespecially effective for treating the disease, says a researcher fromThe University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center." A clearer picture is now emergingabout the importance of the phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase...

Newly Discovered Compound Blocks Known Cancer-Causing Protein

Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center scientists have discovered a potential new drug that inhibits destructive cell signals that drive the growth of one-third of all cancers. The scientists showed they could block the growth of cultured colon cancer cells using this new compound, called cysmethynil. Their finding, reported in the March 22, 2005, issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of...

Study of genomic DNA leads to new advances in cancer diagnostics

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have identified a method of assessing the malignant potential of cells based on the sensitivity of cellular DNA to enzyme digestion. The article by Andrew J. Maniotis et al., "Chromatin sensitivity to Alu I restriction enzyme decreases with malignancy and is regulated by the extracellular matrix and cytoskeleton," appears in the April 2005 issu...

Research Using Mouse Models Reveals A Novel Key Player In The Initiation Of Colon Cancer

Gastric and colorectal cancers account for more than 1 million deaths worldwide every year and several research groups have been working to identify the molecular events that result in the initiation and progression of these tumors. It has been established that interfering with the function of one gene, called Adenomatous Polyposis Coli (APC) has a profound effect on the cells lining the innermos...

How an AIDS-Related Cancer Unleashes Inflammation

Although new HIV treatments have drastically reduced the incidence of Kaposi's sarcoma in developed countries, it remains a health threat in many developing countries. Now, researchers have discovered one way that Kaposi's sarcoma ?a cancer-like viral disease traditionally associated with AIDS ?triggers severe inflammation. Don Ganem, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator,...

Breast-Cancer Risk Linked to Exposure to Traffic Emissions at Menarche, First Birth

Exposure to carcinogens in traffic emissions at particular lifetime points may increase the risk of developing breast cancer in women who are lifetime nonsmokers, a study by epidemiologists and geographers at the University at Buffalo has found. Their study was conducted among women who lived in Erie and Niagara counties of New York State between 1996 and 2001. They found that higher expo...

Towards precise classification of cancers based on robust gene functional expression profiles

Chemists say they have identified a gene that appears to play a key role in the development of type 1 diabetes, also known as insulin-dependent or juvenile diabetes, a disease that affects about one million people in the U.S. and is on the rise worldwide. They described their findings, which they say could lead to new drug interventions and possibly gene therapy, today at the 229th national meeti...

Mayo Clinic Researchers Create 'Obedient Virus'; First Step To Use Measles Virus Against Cancer

An international team of Mayo Clinic-led researchers is first to devise a system that consistently converts the measles virus into a therapeutic killer that hunts down and destroys cancer cells -- and cancer cells only. Their research findings appear as an advanced electronic article of Nature Biotechnology. The researchers harnessed the viral trait for attacking and commandeering cells,...

Effective Cancer Treatments Follow The Clock

Oncologists have long thought that cancer treatments tend to be more effective at certain times of day. But they have been unable to turn this knowledge into practice, because they did not understand the phenomenon well enough. Now, researchers have discov...

Pathogen-Mimicking Vaccine As Strategy For Cancer Therapy

Results from the first clinical trial of a therapeutic cancer vaccine combining the synthetic bacterial DNA sequence, CpG 7909 (ProMuneTM, Coley Pharmaceutical), with a peptide antigen were reported today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The paper shows that the CpG 7909 DNA sequence is safe, and increases the immune system's ability to recognize and destroy cancer cells. The Phase I stu...

UCLA launches $20 million stem cell institute to investigate HIV, cancer and neurological disorders

Experts in bioengineering, imaging, molecular genetics, immunology, ethics, hematology/oncology and cellular biology to collaborate on Proposition 71 research Drawing together experts from fields as diverse as engineering to molecular biology, UCLA officials announced March 16 the formation of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine to conduct embryonic and adult stem cell resear...

Epstein-Barr virus protein crucial to its role in blood cancers

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a link between a critical cancer pathway and an Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) protein known to be expressed in a number of EBV-associated cancers. Their findings demonstrate a new mechanism by which EBV transforms human B cells from the immune system into cancerous cells, which can lead to development of B-cell lymphomas....

Antiretroviral therapy may prevent excess risk of some cancers in people with HIV

In people infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) may prevent most excess cases of Kaposi sarcoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to a new study in the March 16 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Studies of people with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have reported increased risks of several cancers, in...