Tumors

Mouse brain tumors mimic those in human genetic disorder

A recently developed mouse model of braintumors common in the genetic disorder neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1)successfully mimics the human condition and provides unique insightinto tumor development, diagnosis and treatment, according toresearchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.After validating their animal model, the team made two importantdiscoveries: New blood vesse...

Self-assembled nano-sized probes allow Penn researchers to see tumors through flesh and skin

Nano-sized particles embedded with bright, light-emitting molecules have enabled researchers to visualize a tumor more than one centimeter below the skin surface using only infrared light. A team of chemists, bioengineers and medical researchers based at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Minnesota has lodged fluorescent materials called porphyrins within the surface of a polyme...

Pulsating ultrasound enhances gene therapy for tumors

High-intensity focused ultrasound emitted in short pulses is a promising, non-invasive procedure for enhancing gene delivery to cancerous cells without destroying healthy tissue, according to a study in the May issue of the journal Radiology. High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is more powerful than standard ultrasound. HIFU can destroy tumors through long and continuous exposures tha...

NSAID drug protects against intestinal tumors in mice, despite poor diet and gene losses

In mouse models of intestinal cancer, use of an anti-inflammatory drug eliminated all of the cancer-causing risks produced by a high-fat Western-style diet - even when several genetic brakes to cancer formation were missing in the animals, say researchers from the Albert Einstein Cancer Center. The investigators, who presented their findings at the 96th Annual Meeting of the American Assoc...

Double trouble: Cells with duplicate genomes can trigger tumors

Abnormal cell division that yields cells with an extra set of chromosomes can initiate the development of tumors in mice, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have shown, validating a controversial theory about cancer causation put forth by a scientific visionary nearly 100 years ago. The so-called "double-value" cells are produced by random errors in cell division that occur with u...

Report calls for improved monoclonal antibodies against solid tumors

A new report by leading experts in monoclonal antibody research for oncology offers a conceptual framework for future research in the design of antibody therapies against solid tumors. Writing in the January 15, 2007 issue of CANCER ( ), a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer So...

Stem Cells Found In Cerebellum; Possible Cell of Origin for Childhood Brain Tumors

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have discovered the presence of stem cells in the cerebellum, a brain region where a deadly type of brain tumor originates. Their findings suggest that such tumors, called medulloblastomas, could arise from stem cells gone awry. The cerebellum is the brain's control center for motor coordination and cognitive function, yet little has been known...

Vaccine targets tumors where they live

Vaccine strategies are being designed to battle cancer, but their use for metastatic melanoma is a challenge. Effective vaccines against established tumors require tumor-reactive T cells to traffic to the sites of the tumors and are locally activated there in order to kill cancer cells. A problem is that the T cells lose their tumor-killing power once they reach the environment surrounding the tu...

Breast tumors in mice eradicated using cancer vaccine

Findings could lead to new immune therapy for breast cancer A team from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has shown that by using a cancer vaccine based on the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, they can cure mice with established breast tumors. Cancer vaccines, which are more properly described as immunotherapy, work by boosting an immune response against tumor-associated...

Optimizing cell therapy against tumors is a balancing ACT

Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) therapy is used to treat patients with metastatic solid tumors. ACT involves the removal of some of the patient's cancer cells, and some of their immune T cells. When the cells are mixed together, specific parts of the cancer cells that stimulate the T cells to cause an immune attack can be identified. The T cells get expanded and re-infused into the patient to mount...

A new link between stem cells and tumors

Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg and the Institute of Biomedical Research of the Parc Cient�fic de Barcelona (IRB-PCB) have now added key evidence to claims that some types of cancer originate with defects in stem cells. The study, reported this week in the on-line edition of (September 4) shows that if key molecules aren't place...

Prostate cancer uses Wnt signaling proteins to promote growth of bone tumors

Prostate cancer is a cruel disease. Left untreated, prostate cancer cells often metastasize, or spread, to bone where they form fracture-prone tumors that are extremely painful. More than 80 percent of men who die from prostate cancer die with metastatic disease in their bones. But scientists know very little about how migrating prostate cancer cells set up housekeeping in bone tissue and...

Common molecular 'signature' identified in solid tumors

Scientists have discovered that a wide variety of different cancers actually share something in common ?a molecular "signature" made up of tiny bits of genetic material called microRNA (miRNA) that target key cancer genes and promote malignant growth. The finding provides more insight into miRNA as an emerging class of gene regulators and may also pave the way for new approaches in diagno...

'Virus chip' detects new virus in prostate tumors

UCSF and Cleveland Clinic scientists have discovered a new virus in human prostate tumors. The type of virus, closely related to viruses typically found in mice, has never been detected in humans. The virus's link to human disease is still unclear, and more study is needed to determine the relationship between the virus and cancer, if any, the scientists say. The discovery was made with...

Botox could help target resistant tumors for treatment

The cosmetic treatment Botox may have a new use as an adjuvant to cancer therapy, providing an open door for chemotherapy and radiation treatments, according to a study published in the Feb. 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research. The study in mice, led by Bernard Gallez, Ph.D., professor of pharmacy at the Université de Louvain in Brussels, Belgium, found that by injecting Botulinum neurot...

Macrophage signaling may affect hormone resistance in prostate tumors

Interaction between prostate cancer cells and immune cells called macrophages may be a source of inflammatory signals capable of impacting the effectiveness of androgen antagonists, the most common and effective treatment for prostate cancer, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine. Male hormones called androgens are es...

Common molecular 'signature' identified in solid tumors

Scientists have discovered that a wide variety of different cancers actually share something in common ?a molecular "signature" made up of tiny bits of genetic material called microRNA (miRNA) that target key cancer genes and promote malignant growth. The finding provides more insight into miRNA as an emerging class of gene regulators and may also pave the way for new approaches in diagno...

Weighting cancer drugs to make them hit tumors harder

Scientists have devised a blueprint for boosting anti-cancer drugs' effectiveness and lowering their toxicity by attaching the equivalent of a lead sinker onto the drugs. This extra weight makes the drugs penetrate and accumulate inside tumors more effectively. Chemotherapy drugs often fall short of achieving their full impact because the drugs diffuse in and out of the tumor too rapidly,...

Inflammation and drugs to control this activity studied in a variety of tumors sites

Inflammation cuts both ways. When invaded by an infectious agent, for example, the body calls on the forces of inflammation to fight and defeat the intruder. But when the biochemical processes of the immune system are either misdirected or chronically turned on, inflammation can lead to adversity, including some forms of cancer. For this reason, scientists are closely studying the link between i...

Vegetables inhibit growth of prostate cancer in mice with human tumors

As long-lived predators at the top of the marine food chain, albatrosses accumulate toxic contaminants such as PCBs, DDT, and mercury in their bodies. A new study has found dramatic differences in contaminant levels between two closely related albatross species that forage in different areas of the North Pacific. Researchers also found that levels of PCBs and DDT have increased in both species ov...

USC researchers investigate protein that protects tumors

A protein that allows breast cancer cells to evade the body's natural immune responses could be a target of future cancer therapies, according to a study by scientists from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. The study, published in the July 1 issue of the American Journal of Pathology, is the first to identify how EphB4 ?a protein that sits on the s...

Attacking cancer's sweet tooth is effective strategy against tumors

An ancient avenue for producing cellular energy, the glycolytic pathway, could provide a surprisingly rich target for anti-cancer therapies. A team of Harvard Medical School (HMS) researchers knocked down one of the pathway's enzymes, LDHA, in a variety of fast-growing breast cancer cells, effectively shutting down glycolysis, and implanted the cells in mice. Control animals carrying tumo...

Radiation-armed robot rapidly destroys human lung tumors

Super-intense radiation delivered by a robotic arm eradicated lung tumors in some human patients just 3-4 months after treatment, medical physicist Cihat Ozhasoglu, Ph.D. of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center will report in early August at the 48th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine in Orlando. Although it is too early to determine the technique's long-...

Bubbles go high-tech to fight tumors

Bubbles: You've bathed in them, popped them, endured bad song lyrics about them. Now, University of Michigan researchers hope to add a more sophisticated application to the list---gas bubbles used like corks to block oxygen flow to tumors, or to deliver drugs. The process of blocking blood flow to a tumor is called embolization, and using gas bubbles is a new technique in embolotherapy....

Possible birthplace of malignant brain tumors identified

Researchers have found that abnormal stimulation of a cellular trigger that normally regulates replenishment of brain cells in adults causes invasive tumor-like growths in mice. Removing the abnormal stimulation causes the growths to regress--a finding the researchers said suggests a possible treatment for the lethal, aggressive brain tumors called malignant gliomas. Arturo Alvarez-Buylla...

Breast stem cells have features similar to 'basal' tumors

The most aggressive form of breast cancer may originate from breast stem cells that have undergone genetic mishaps. Victorian Breast Cancer Research Consortium scientists from The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, using mouse models, have discovered that breast stem cells do not express receptors for the female hormones oestrogen or progesterone. These and otherfeatures of the stem cell re...

Gene first linked to rare disease may trigger skin cancer, other tumors

A gene first identified in connection with a rare disease in which patients develop multiple, benign skin tumors may be a more general player in cancers found throughout the body, according to a report in the May 19, 2006 Cell. The disease familial cylindromatosis results from the loss of a gene called CYLD, causing tumors known as cylindromas to develop in hair-follicle cells. Earlier st...

Fatty spheres loaded with siRNA shrink ovarian cancer tumors in preclinical trial

A molecular "off" switch packaged in a tiny sphere penetrates deeply into ovarian cancer tumor cells, stifling a troublesome protein and drastically reducing the size of tumors, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the Aug. 15 edition of Clinical Cancer Research. The mouse model experiment, featured on the cover of the journal, demonstrates a poten...

OHSU study says stem cell 'fusion' occurs in tumors

An Oregon Health & Science University study is adding credence to an increasingly popular theory that fusion is what bonds stem cells with bone marrow cells to regenerate organ tissue. Scientists in the OHSU School of Medicine found that transplanted cells derived from adult bone marrow can fuse with intestinal stem cells of both normal and diseased tissue comprising the cellular linin...

Scientist works to improve treatment for brain tumors

With a five-year, $1 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, a Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center researcher will work to improve the effectiveness of a drug that he developed for the most deadly type of brain tumor. Waldemar Debinski, M.D., Ph.D., pioneered a method to destroy cells of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) with less damage to healthy cells. The drug is curr...

MIT nanoparticles may help detect, treat tumors

A new technique devised by MIT engineers may one day help physicians detect cancerous tumors during early stages of growth. The work appears as the cover feature in the May issue of Angewandte...

Killing brain tumors from within: A 'Trojan horse' approach

A new method for targeting malignant brain tumors through inducing the cancerous cells to "commit suicide" has been developed by a team of researchers headed by a Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor of biochemistry. Alexander Levitzki, who is the Wolfson Family Professor of Biochemistry, his research associate, Dr. Alexei Shir, and his colleagues from the Ludwig-Maximilians Univers...

Innovative movies show real-time immune-cell activity within tumors

Using advanced new microscopy techniques in concert with sophisticated transgenic technologies, scientists at The Wistar Institute have for the first time created three-dimensional, time-lapse movies showing immune cells targeting cancer cells in live tumor tissues. In recorded experiments, immune cells called T cells can be seen actively migrating though tissues, making direct contact with tumor...

Vaccine for brain tumors shows promising results

A vaccine for treating a recurrent cancer of the central nervous system that occurs primarily in the brain, known as glioma, has shown promising results in preliminary data from a clinical trial at UCSF Medical Center. Findings from the first group of six patients in the study, being conducted at the UCSF Brain Tumor Research Center, showed that vitespen (trademarked as Oncophage), a vacci...

Mayo discovers protein as potential tactic to prevent tumors

Mayo Clinic researchers have found that a protein that initiates a "quality control check" during cell division also directs cell death for those cells damaged during duplication. This knowledge represents a potential "bulls eye" for targeting anti-tumor drugs. The findings appear in the current issue of Science. The researchers examined a protein called cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2), w...

Newly identified biomarker detects and regulates spread of brain tumors

Researchers at Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute have identified a novel biomarker for brain tumors and have uncovered a potential role the marker may play when the tumor spreads or comes back after treatment. The study, ÒAttractin is elevated in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with malignant astrocytoma and mediates glioma cell migration," is published in the November issue of Cli...

Clue found to Epstein-Barr virus' ability to form and sustain tumors

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) have found a viral target that opens the door for the development of drugs to destroy tumors caused by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). The finding, published in the Sept. 4 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online, identifies the activity of a critical segment of a viral protein required to sust...

An AIDS-related virus tricks cells to become tumors, new Penn study finds

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered how the Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) subverts a normal cell process in order to promote tumor growth. The finding, published in the most recent issue of PLoS Pathogens, offers new potential strategies for treating Kaposi's sarcoma and other cancers associated with viruses. KSHV is an opportun...

Reactivated gene shrinks tumors

Many cancers arise due to defects in genes that normally suppress tumor growth. Now, for the first time, MIT researchers have shown that re-activating one of those genes in mice can cause tumors to shrink or disappear. "If we can find drugs that restore p53 function in huma...

Targeting tumors the natural way

By mimicking Nature's way of distinguishing one type of cell from another, University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists now report they can more effectively seek out and kill cancer cells while sparing healthy ones. The new tumor targeting strategy, presented today (March 25) at the annual national meeting of the American Chemical Society, cleverly harnesses one of the body's natural antibod...