Making Breast Cancer Cells More Responsive To Chemotherapy
5/28/2013
Breast cancer characterized as "triple negative" carries a poor prognosis, with limited treatment options. In some cases, chemotherapy doesn't kill the cancer cells the way it's supposed to. New research from Western University explains why some cancer cells don't respond to chemotherapy, and identifies a mechanism to rectify that. Dr...
Genomic Analysis Lends Insight Into Prostate Cancer
5/28/2013
Mayo Clinic researchers have used next generation genomic analysis to determine that some of the more aggressive prostate cancer tumors have similar genetic origins, which may help in predicting cancer progression. The findings appear online in the journal Cancer Research...
EGFR Prevents Maturation Of Cancer-Fighting MiRNAs When Oxygen Is Short
5/28/2013
Even while being dragged to its destruction inside a cell, a cancer-promoting growth factor receptor fires away, sending signals that thwart the development of tumor-suppressing microRNAs (miRNAs) before it's dissolved, researchers reported in an early online publication at Nature...
How Rapamycin Slows Cell Growth
5/28/2013
University of Montreal researchers have discovered a novel molecular mechanism that can potentially slow the progression of some cancers and other diseases of abnormal growth. In the prestigious journal Cell, scientists from the University of Montreal explain how they found that the anti-cancer and anti-proliferative drug rapamycin slows down or prevents cells from dividing...
Biophysicists Measure Mechanism That Determines Fate Of Living Cells
5/28/2013
Cells in the human body do not function in isolation. Living cells rely on communication with their environment - neighboring cells and the surrounding matrix - to activate a wide range of cellular functions, including reproduction of new cells, differentiation of stem cells into distinct cell types, cell adhesion, and migration of white blood cells to fight bodily infections...
Therapy Now Being Tested In Advanced Cancer Could Halt Progression Of Premalignant Cells
5/28/2013
Scientists have uncovered a survival mechanism that occurs in breast cells that have just turned premalignant-cells on the cusp between normalcy and cancers-which may lead to new methods of stopping tumors...
Blood Transfusions Are Overused During Common Heart Surgery
5/28/2013
According to a new study published in The Lancet, blood transfusions are still being overused during common heart surgery even though there is compelling evidence demonstrating the dangers of unnecessary blood transfusions...
Genes That Control Whether Tumors Adapt Or Die When Faced With P53 Activating Drugs
5/27/2013
When turned on, the gene p53 turns off cancer. However, when existing drugs boost p53, only a few tumors die - the rest resist the challenge. A study published in the journal Cell Reports shows how: tumors that live even in the face of p53 reactivation create more of the protein p21 than the protein PUMA; tumors that die have more PUMA than p21...
DNA Damage - The Dark Side Of Respiration
5/27/2013
Adventitious changes in cellular DNA can endanger the whole organism, as they may lead to life-threatening illnesses like cancer. Researchers at LMU now report how byproducts of respiration cause mispairing of subunits in the double helix. The DNA in our cells controls the form and function of every cell type in our bodies...
Giving Children With Leukemia The Best Chance For Long-Term Survival With Minimal Toxic Side Effects
5/27/2013
Treating pediatric leukemia patients with a liposomal formulation of anthracycline-based chemotherapy at a more intense-than-standard dose during initial treatment may result in high survival rates without causing any added heart toxicity, according to the results of a study published online in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH)...