Cancer blog page

July 7, 2011, 8:58 AM CT

Disparities in progress against colorectal cancer

Progress in reducing colorectal cancer (CRC) mortality rates varies significantly across states, with rates in the Northeast showing the most progress and those in the South showing the least progress, as per a newly released study. As a result, the highest burden of CRC mortality shifted from the Northeast in the early part of 1990s to the southern states along the Appalachian corridor in the mid 2000s. The decrease in CRC mortality rates by state correlated strongly with uptake of screening.

The study appears in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, and says improving screening rates through state-specific initiatives and/or expansion of the Colorectal Cancer Control Program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the Appalachian region and certain southern states could lessen the disproportionately high burden of CRC in these states.

Colorectal cancer mortality rates have been decreasing for a number of decades in the United States, with the decrease accelerating in the most recent time period. The extent to which this decrease varies across states and its influence on the geographic patterns of rates was previously unknown. To investigate, scientists led by American Cancer Society epidemiologist Ahmedin Jemal, Ph.D., analyzed trends in age-standardized CRC death rates for each state from 1990-2007. They found CRC mortality rates significantly decreased in all states except Mississippi between 1990-2007 based on the joinpoint model. The decrease in death rates between 1990-1994 and 2003-2007 ranged from 9% in Alabama to >33% in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and Alaska. Mississippi and Wyoming showed no significant decrease. Generally, the northeastern states showed the largest decreases, while southern states showed the smallest decreases. The highest CRC mortality rates shifted from the northeastern states during 1990-1994 to the southern states along the Appalachian corridor during 2003-2007. The decrease in CRC mortality rates by state correlated strongly with uptake of screening......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

April 3, 2011, 9:29 AM CT

KRAS rearrangements in metastatic prostate cancer

Researchers have uncovered a genetic characteristic of metastatic prostate cancer that defines a rare sub-type of this disease. These findings appear in Cancer Discovery, the newest journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, which will debut at the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011, held April 2-6.

Arul M. Chinnaiyan, M.D., Ph.D., an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and director of the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology, and his colleagues identified an oncogenic gene fusion of KRAS, one of the most studied and well-known oncogenes in a metastatic prostate cancer cell line.

Like most metastatic disease, metastatic prostate cancer has a grim prognosis. As researchers learn more about the genetic characteristics of this disease, they appears to be able to work backward and accurately predict which early-stage prostate cancers will be more aggressive and thus require additional treatment and management.

"Right now, we can identify the presence of prostate cancer but not accurately predict which of these cancers will have a poor prognosis," said Chinnaiyan. "Eventhough prostate cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death, we need better prognostic information to separate the slow growing tumors from the more aggressive ones"......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

March 31, 2011, 7:09 AM CT

Molecular disease model for melanoma

Cancer Commons, an initiative of CollabRx, a provider of information technology to personalize cancer therapys and accelerate research, announces the publication of a molecular disease model of melanoma (MDMM) which classifies the disease into molecular subtypes, rather than traditional histological or cellular subtypes, and describes therapy guidelines for each subtype, including specific assays, drugs, and clinical trials. The paper, titled "Molecular Disease Model for Melanoma," by Vidwans et al, was reported in the March 30th issue of PLoS ONE

Published as a "dynamic" review paper by a panel of leading scientists and clinicians affiliated with the Cancer Commons initiative, the MDMM is maintained online, curated by the authors and continuously updated based on input from the melanoma community to reflect the latest scientific, clinical and technological advancements in cancer research and therapy. The MDMM is designed as an interface between the research and clinical communities where scientists can learn from clinical outcomes to refine molecular subtypes and clinicians can use the latest subtype information in therapy decisions. In this way, the online melanoma disease model becomes the core of an adaptive, rapid learning community that provides each patient with the best possible outcome while aggregating results over all patients to advance the standard of care......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

March 28, 2011, 7:19 AM CT

Potential cancer therapy

Alpha viruses, such as Sindbis virus, carry their genetic information on a single strand of RNA. On infection they use a protein, replicase, to produce double stranded RNA (dsRNA) which is used as genetic material to make more viruses. However the body recognizes dsRNA as foreign, and infected cells initiate an immune response. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Cancer demonstrates that an artificial plasmid coding for the replicase genes of Sindbis virus causes regression and destruction of lung cancer, or melanoma, cells in mice.

Prior attempts to use synthetic dsRNA to destroy tumor cells have met with problems, including side effects at an effective dose, but there are also concerns about using attenuated viruses, to deliver dsRNA inside cells. Scientists from the University of Texas at Austin have instead used a plasmid containing Sindbis replicase genes (nsp1-4) to force cells to produce dsRNA themselves.

For ten days mice were given daily injections of plasmid into the site of a tumor. After another 15 days most of the tumors had begun to regress, and by day 37 all of the tumors had either regressed or been destroyed. Professor Cui said, "The anti-cancer action of the plasmid seemed to be two hundred percent. Firstly accumulation of dsRNA resulted in cell death and secondly the presence of dsRNA, and the foreign, unmethylated, plasmid DNA, inside a cell activated both innate and adaptive immune responses"......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

March 5, 2011, 4:57 PM CT

What You Should Know About Prostate Cancer Radiation Treatment

Prostate cancer is something that makes anyone nervous. Instead of going into this battle alone, there are many resources you can use to help you understand what you are up against. If prostate cancer radiation treatment is something that you will be undergoing, you might have many questions.

You want to make sure that your doctor is providing you with any information you request about radiation therapy. If you have never underwent radiation before, you will have a variety of questions and you want to get them answered before your treatment begins. You should never undergo any type of treatment that you do not understand.

Likely a couple of different treatments will be involved to treat prostate cancer. It can be very discouraging to have a doctor that is rather elusive about your treatment and you will want to speak up and fully understand what is going on and this can relieve your fears.

If the prostate is removed, this can require a more intensive surgery. Prostatectomy is something that can stop the cancer from spreading and this can be the treatment that allows you to move on with your life. Some people want to have this surgery performed to prevent fears of prostate cancer returning in the future.

Radiation can be used whether you are having surgery or not. If you are undergoing radiation you will likely need a set of treatments. These are appointments that you want to keep at all costs. It can be detrimental to your treatment to miss radiation appointments and your schedule should revolve around your radiation treatment until it is completed.

Radiation is often x rays that are directly aimed at the site where the cancer originated. Prostate cancer radiation will be aimed at the location of the prostate and this is likely what you can expect when you are undergoing radiation.

There is another form of radiation that is used for prostate cancer and this involves implanting seeds of radiation into the prostate and this helps to destroy any cancer cells that are present. You should weigh each form of radiation and work with your doctor to decide which treatment is best for your cancer and your lifestyle.

Prostate cancer radiation treatment is very personal and this can be a very uneasy time in any man’s life when they hear this diagnosis for the first time. Instead of trying to hide from this diagnosis, it is important to educate yourself and this time will be less nerve racking. Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

February 7, 2011, 4:11 PM CT

Cancer cells as ancient 'toolkit'

Despite decades of research and billions of dollars, cancer remains a major killer, with an uncanny ability to evade both the body's defenses and medical intervention. Now an Arizona State University scientist believes he has an explanation.

"Cancer is not a random bunch of selfish rogue cells behaving badly, but a highly-efficient pre-programmed response to stress, honed by a long period of evolution," claims professor Paul Davies, director of the BEYOND Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at ASU and principal investigator of a major research program funded by the National Cancer Institute designed to bring insights from physical science to the problem of cancer.

In a paper published online Feb. 7 in the UK Institute of Physics journal Physical Biology, Davies and Charles Lineweaver from the Australian National University draw on their backgrounds in astrobiology to explain why cancer cells deploy so a number of clever tricks in such a coherent and organized way.

They say it's because cancer revisits tried-and-tested genetic pathways going back a billion years, to the time when loose collections of cells began cooperating in the lead-up to fully developed multicellular life. Dubbed by the authors "Metazoa 1.0," these early assemblages fell short of the full cell and organ differentiation linked to modern multicellular organisms � like humans......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

February 5, 2011, 7:12 AM CT

A loose grip provides better chemotherapy

cientists at Case Western Reserve University have developed a little bomb that promises a big bang for cancer patients.

Preliminary tests show an anti-cancer drug loosely attached to gold nanoparticles starts accumulating deep inside tumors within minutes of injection and can be activated for an effective therapy within two hours. The same drug injected alone takes two days to gather and attacks the tumor from the surface � a far less effective route.

The work, titled "Deep Penetration of a PDT Drug into Tumors by Noncovalent Drug-Gold Nanoparticle Conjugates," is published recently in the online edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society

Speeding anti-cancer drugs directly into tumors enables patients to receive lower doses of the toxic chemicals, thereby saving healthy tissue from damage and other harsh side effects suffered in traditional chemotherapy.

"We hope to lower the dosage by at least a factor of 10," said Clemens Burda, a professor of chemistry at Case Western Reserve and the senior author of the paper.

The key to success? The researchers tied an anti-cancer drug to golden missiles using a weak chemical interaction called a noncovalent bond. In molecule construction, a covalent bond is a heavy rope lashed and knotted; a noncovalent bond is a shoestring tied in a bow......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

December 15, 2010, 7:06 AM CT

Y-90 radioembolization for liver cancer

he latest weapon against inoperable liver cancer is so tiny that it takes millions of them per therapy, but as per interventional radiologists at the Indiana University School of Medicine, those microscopic spheres really pack a therapeutic punch.

The glass spheres contain a radioactive element, yttrium-90, more usually known as Y-90, which emits radiation for a very limited distance so that healthy tissue around the tumor remains unaffected. (2.5mm or less than 1/16th inch in soft tissue).

Y-90 microsphere radioembolization is an FDA-approved procedure first used in the United States in 2002. The outpatient procedure has gained favor with interventional radiologists for treating a type of cancer that is becoming more prevalent due to an increase in the cases of hepatitis and obesity, which along with alcoholism are the three primary causes of liver cancer.

Daniel E. Wertman Jr., M.D., co-director of vascular and interventional radiology and assistant professor of clinical radiology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, said more than 300 patients have been treated with Y-90 radioembolization since the program was initiated at Indiana University Hospital and the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center more than 3 years ago......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

December 13, 2010, 7:46 AM CT

Prognosis with circulating tumor cells

etastatic breast cancer patients whose blood contains circulating tumor cells (CTCs) before or after treatment with high-dose chemotherapy and blood stem cell transplant have shorter survival periods, according to a new study by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

The findings were presented today in a poster session at the 33rd Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

In addition, patients with higher percentages of epithelial cells, or the presence of a specific cellular transition, had higher chances for relapse.

"Building on the information from this study, we eventually may be able to use these molecular markers to identify breast cancer patients with a high likelihood of developing metastasis or relapsing. This may allow physicians to design specific treatments to help patients achieve better outcomes," said James M. Reuben, Ph.D., professor in MD Anderson's Department of Hematopathology, and co-corresponding author of the study.



Stem cells have common receptor

High-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous hematopoietic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (ASCT) offers modest complete response rates for some patients with metastatic breast cancer. However, tumor cells that spread to the bone may be recruited and mobilized along with hematopoietic stem cells to increase a patient's chance of relapse......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

December 13, 2010, 7:43 AM CT

Trio of drugs may combat 'triple negative' breast cancer

gene target for drug resistance, a triple-drug cocktail for triple negative breast cancer, and patients' risk for carpal tunnel syndrome are among study highlights scheduled to be presented by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers during the 33rd Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 8-12. The information is embargoed for the time of presentation at the symposium.

Working with cell cultures and mouse models, scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have tested a cocktail of three drugs that holds promise for treating so-called triple negative breast cancers.

Women with such cancers lack all three hormone receptors estrogen, progesterone and human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2). Currently, therapys for triple negative breast cancers are limited to surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, which provide some improvements but overall poor prognoses.

In the newly released study, Johns Hopkins researchers began with a drug called Entinostat, which blocks an enzyme that unfolds DNA, providing regulatory molecules access to genes within and also reactivates a gene called retinoic acid receptor-beta (RARβ). Then, they added a drug called All Trans Retinoic Acid (ATRA), correlation to Vitamin A, which binds a protein made by the reactivated RARβ gene. Together, the ATRA drug and RARβ gene act as a brake on cancer cell growth. The researchers completed the drug cocktail with conventional chemotherapy using either low doses of doxorubicin or paclitaxel......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

December 13, 2010, 7:11 AM CT

Pomegranate juice components inhibit cancer

Scientists at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), have identified components in pomegranate juice that seem to inhibit the movement of cancer cells and weaken their attraction to a chemical signal that has been shown to promote the metastasis of prostate cancer to the bone, as per a presentation today at the American Society for Cell Biology's 50th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.

The scientists in the UCR laboratory of Manuela Martins-Green, Ph.D., plan additional testing in an in vivo model for prostate cancer to determine dose-dependent effects and side effects of the two components.

The effect, if any, of pomegranate juice on the progression of prostate cancer is controversial.

In a 2006 study of patients with prostate cancer who daily drank an eight-ounce glass of pomegranate juice, UCLA scientists detected a decline in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels that suggested a potential slowing of cancer progression.

The UCLA scientists did not try to define the potential biological mechanism behind pomegranate juice's effects in the study.

In Sept. 2010, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed suit against Pom Wonderful, the natural foods company that provided the pomegranate juice for the UCLA research and has supported other research on pomegranate juice. The FTC charged the company with making false and misleading claims about the juice's effects on health......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

December 10, 2010, 7:38 AM CT

Types of Reconstruction for Women with Mastectomy

acing mastectomy (the removal of one or both breasts frequently due to cancer-as opposed to lumpectomy, which just removes a small portion of the breast) can be an emotional, challenging time for women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. The act of thinking beyond the present and looking forward to moving on with one's life in the future has given a number of women the strength to make it through each day. If your doctor has advised mastectomy, now is also an appropriate time to start asking about the next step: breast reconstruction.

If your doctor is certain that you will not need additional radiation therapys to the chest area after the mastectomy, you appears to be able to continue with a reconstructive procedure immediately after the first surgery. However, if you do need additional chemo-or if your doctor isn't sure whether this will be necessary-you may need to have a two-step reconstruction. Importantly, if you have still not had a mastectomy, you should inquire as to whether you might be eligible for a nipple-sparing procedure, which could prevent the need for nipple and/or areola reconstruction later.

Breast reconstruction, particularly in a two-stage process, often begins with the insertion of a tissue expander. This device functions by stretching the skin around the breast area over a period of time (usually 4-6 months) as it is inflated by your doctor at regular intervals. When the skin has created an appropriately sized pocket, the device is removed and an implant replaces it (eventhough sometimes the expander remains in lieu of the implant)......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

December 8, 2010, 7:14 AM CT

A small molecule against cancer

A pioneering clinical trial is testing the effectiveness in leukemia of a small molecule that shuts down MDM2, a protein that can disable the well-known tumor suppressor p53.

Michael Andreeff, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Medicine and chief of Molecular Hematology and Therapy in the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, presented preliminary results of this ongoing Phase I study at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology. The clinical trial is under way at MD Anderson and five other sites in the United States and United Kingdom.

The first-in-class drug has shown clinical activity in some patients and been well-tolerated, Andreeff said.

Andreeff has been researching the interaction between MDM2 and p53 for five years. He says he believes this study may lead to an effective new way to fight some types of cancer with fewer side effects.

"P53 can be activated by chemotherapy or radiation, but both of these therapies carry risks of causing secondary tumors," he said. "If we can activate this tumor-suppressor with a method that is non-genotoxic and does not cause damage to a patient's DNA, we appears to be able to help avoid secondary tumors caused by other therapys".



Too much MDM2 degrades p53........ Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

October 15, 2010, 6:43 AM CT

Gene prevents stem cells from turning cancerous

Stem cells, the prodigious precursors of all the tissues in our body, can make almost anything, given the right circumstances. Including, unfortunately, cancer. Now research from Rockefeller University shows that having too a number of stem cells, or stem cells that live for too long, can increase the odds of developing cancer. By identifying a mechanism that regulates programmed cell death in precursor cells for blood, or hematopoietic stem cells, the work is the first to connect the death of such cells to a later susceptibility to tumors in mice. It also provides evidence of the potentially carcinogenic downside to stem cell therapys, and suggests that nature has sought to balance stem cells' regenerative power against their potentially lethal potency.

Research associate Maria Garcia-Fernandez, Hermann Steller, head of the Strang Laboratory of Apoptosis and Cancer Biology, and their colleagues explored the activity of a gene called Sept4, which encodes a protein, ARTS, that increases programmed cell death, or apoptosis, by antagonizing other proteins that prevent cell death. ARTS was originally discovered by Sarit Larisch, a visiting professor at Rockefeller, and is found to be lacking in human leukemia and other cancers, suggesting it suppresses tumors. To study the role of ARTS, the experimenters bred a line of mice genetically engineered to lack the Sept4 gene......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

September 23, 2010, 7:25 AM CT

Nose drops to treat brain cancer

Scientists are reporting the development and successful initial testing of a new form of methotrexate the mainstay anticancer drug designed to be given as nose drops rather than injected. It shows promise as a more effective treatment for brain cancer, they say. The report appears in ACS' Molecular Pharmaceutics, a bi-monthly journal.

Tomotaka Shingaki and colleagues note that brain cancer is difficult to treat, partly because current anticancer drugs have difficulty reaching the brain. That's because the so-called blood-brain barrier (a protective layer of cells surrounding the brain) prevents medicine in the blood from entering the brain. But new evidence indicates that some drugs administered through the nose, either as nose drops or nasal spray, can bypass this barrier and travel directly into the brain. Among them are drugs for migraine headaches. Until now, however, nobody knew if methotrexate might do the same.

The scientists tested methotrexate nose drops on laboratory rats with brain cancer. Compared to cancer treated with an injectable form of the drug, the nose drop drug reduced the weight of tumors by almost one-third, the scientists said. "The strategy to utilize the nose-brain direct transport can be applicable to a new therapeutic system not only for brain tumors but also for other central nervous system disorders such as neurodegenerative diseases," the article noted......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

September 1, 2010, 6:59 AM CT

New frontier in fighting cancer

A "game-changing" technique using near infrared light enables researchers to look deeper into the guts of cells, potentially opening up a new frontier in the fights against cancer and a number of other diseases.

University of Central Florida chemists, led by Professor Kevin Belfield, used near infrared light and fluorescent dye to take pictures of cells and tumors deep within tissue. The probes specifically target lysosomes, which act as cells' thermostats and waste processors and which have been associated with a variety of diseases, including types of mental illnesses and cancers.

The probes can be adapted to search for certain proteins found in tumors, which means they someday may help doctors diagnose and potentially treat tumors.

"This is a game-changer," Belfield said. "Until now, there was no real way to study lysosomes because existing techniques have severe limitations. But the probe we developed is stable, which allows for longer periods of imaging".

Current imaging probes work for only a few minutes. They cannot penetrate deep tissue, are sensitive to pH levels and have poor water solubility. Belfield's technique gets around those problems by using near infrared light. Once scientists identified the correct light frequency, they took images of lysosomes for hours......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

August 10, 2010, 7:14 AM CT

Inhibiting prostate cancer

A kinase is a type of enzyme the body uses to regulate the functions of the proteins mandatory for cell growth and maintenance, and scientists have discovered that one in particular plays a key role in developing prostate cancer. "It's known as Mnk, and eventhough it appears not to be essential for normal cell maintenance, it's important for cancer growth" said Dr. Luc Furic, a postdoctoral researcher working with Dr. Nahum Sonenberg at McGill University's Goodman Cancer Research Centre and Department of Biochemistry.

This is a very significant finding because the body's chemical processes are highly complex and interrelated, meaning that targeting one cause of cancer often involves affecting the body's normal functions. An important part of cancer research is about trying to find processes that can be inhibited or stopped without causing damages to normal tissue.

The chemical process Mnk uses is known as phosphorylation, and this process activates or inactivates the body's proteins, controlling mechanisms that can cause disease. In this case, Mnk works with a protein known as eIF4E to synthesize proteins in the cell.

Scientists at the Centre hospitalier de l'Universit de Montral Research Centre (CRCHUM), Universit de Montral and McGill University engineered mice that were able to block the phosphorylation process of this protein, and discovered that these mice became resistant to prostate cancer growth. "The PTEN gene and its protein act as a tumour suppressor," explained Dr. Fred Saad, researcher at the CRCHUM and at Universit de Montral's Department of Surgery. "By removing this gene in the mouse prostate, we were able to study eIF4E's effect on cell growth."........ Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

July 14, 2010, 7:50 AM CT

Reducing pain and depression of cancer

Pain and depression linked to cancer symptoms often unrecognized and undertreated can be significantly reduced through centralized telephone-based care management coupled with automated symptom monitoring, as per scientists from the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Medicine.

The Indiana Cancer Pain and Depression (INCPAD) study combined automated calls with follow-up calls from the nurse care manager to reduce pain and depression in cancer patients. Calls were made to individuals with all types of cancers seen by rural and urban community-based oncology physicians.

The improved outcomes of the patients who received the telephone-based care management and the feasibility of this approach is published in the July 14, 2010, issue of the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA).

"Because oncologists are busy with testing, chemotherapy and other therapys, they often have too little time left for quality of life issues, like pain and depression. We felt one solution might be a partnership between a telephone-based symptom management team and community-based oncology practices. We observed that an economical, centralized approach is feasible to conduct and significantly improved symptoms of both depression and pain in patients in any phase of cancer from newly diagnosed to long term to recurrent to cancer free," said Kurt Kroenke, M.D., the study's principal investigator. Dr. Kroenke is a Regenstrief Institute investigator and an IU School of Medicine professor of medicine......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

July 9, 2010, 7:28 AM CT

DNA discovery opens new door

By solving the three-dimensional structure of a protein involved in repairing DNA errors, a group of McMaster University scientists have revealed new avenues to develop evaluation tools and alternative therapys for people living with hereditary colorectal cancers.

The finding, reported in the journal Molecular Cell, is an important step forward in the field of molecular and structural biology. The McMaster scientists uncovered how a specific protein, known as MutL, works within a cell to unleash the series of events that repair DNA when the replication machinery makes a mistake.

The research team was led by Alba Guarn, an associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster, and involved scientists in Europe and the United States. The main author of the study was Monica Pillon, a master's student in the Guarn laboratory.

Errors in DNA can arise from a number of types of damage including external harm, such as UV radiation or carcinogens, as well as by intrinsic cellular processes such as DNA replication. Failure to correct these errors leads to mutations, which results in cancer or many severe inherited disorders.

To prevent this from happening, cells posses a variety of DNA repair systems that correct these errors or trigger cell death when the damage cannot be fixed......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

July 7, 2010, 7:23 AM CT

Multicolor quantum dots in cancer diagnosis

The tunable fluorescent nanoparticles known as quantum dots make ideal tools for distinguishing and identifying rare cancer cells in tissue biopsies, Emory and Georgia Tech researchers have demonstrated.

An article to be featured on the cover of the July 15 issue of Analytical Chemistry describes how multicolor quantum dots associated with antibodies can distinguish the Reed-Sternberg cells that are characteristic of Hodgkin's lymphoma.

"Our multicolor quantum dot staining method provides rapid detection and identification of rare cancerous cells from heterogenous tissue specimens," says senior author Shuming Nie, PhD, the Wallace H. Coulter distinguished professor in the Coulter department of biomedical engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. "The clinical utility is not limited to Hodgkin's lymphoma but potentially could be extended to detect cancer stem cells, tumor-associated macrophages and other rare cell types".

Quantum dots are nanometer-sized semiconductor crystals that have unique chemical and physical properties due to their size and their highly compact structure. Quantum dots can be chemically associated with antibodies, which can detect molecules present on the surfaces or internal parts of cancer cells.

As a test of quantum dots' discriminatory power, the authors used four varieties at once -- white, red, green and blue each detecting a different protein, to stain lymph node biopsies. The goal was to distinguish six Hodgkin's lymphoma cases from two other types of lymphoma and samples from two patients with non-malignant growths in their lymph nodes......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

June 24, 2010, 10:20 PM CT

Off-the-shelf digital camera for cancer detection

Using an off-the-shelf digital camera, Rice University biomedical engineers and scientists from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center have created an inexpensive device that is powerful enough to let doctors easily distinguish malignant cells from healthy cells simply by viewing the LCD monitor on the back of the camera.

The results of the first tests of the camera were published online this week in the open-access journal PLoS ONE.

"Consumer-grade cameras can serve as powerful platforms for diagnostic imaging," said Rice's Rebecca Richards-Kortum, the study's main author. "Based on portability, performance and cost, you could make a case for using them both to lower health care costs in developed countries and to provide services that simply aren't available in resource-poor countries".

Richards-Kortum is Rice's Stanley C. Moore Professor of Bioengineering, professor of electrical and computer engineering and the founder of Rice's global health initiative, Rice 360 degree. Her Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging Laboratory specializes in tools for the early detection of cancer and other diseases. Her team has developed fluorescent dyes and targeted nanoparticles that let doctors zero in on the molecular hallmarks of cancer.

In the newly released study, the team captured images of cells with a small bundle of fiber-optic cables attached to a $400 Olympus E-330 camera. When imaging tissues, Richards-Kortum's team applied a common fluorescent dye that caused cell nuclei in the samples to glow brightly when lighted with the tip of the fiber-optic bundle. Three tissue types were tested: cancer cell cultures that were grown in a lab, tissue samples from newly resected tumors and healthy tissue viewed in the mouths of patients......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

March 22, 2010, 7:39 PM CT

Racial disparities diminish in specialized cancer centers

A newly released study has observed that when African American and white cancer patients are treated at similar, specialized cancer care institutions, mortality rates are roughly equal. Published early online in Cancer, a peer-evaluated journal of the American Cancer Society, the findings suggest that where patients receive care may partly explain observed racial disparities in cancer mortality.

In the newly released study, scientists led by Tracy Onega, PhD, MA, of the Dartmouth Medical School looked at records for more than 200,000 Medicare recipients treated for cancer between 1998 and 2003. The analysis focused on one- and three-year mortality for patients with lung, breast, colorectal, and prostate cancer. National Cancer Institute (NCI) comprehensive or clinical cancer centers were used to evaluate the influence of place of service, based on their standing as highly specialized cancer care settings. Of the sample population, 9 percent were African American. A higher proportion of African Americans attended an NCI cancer center than Caucasians (11.1% vs. 6.9%).

The scientists observed that across all cancer care settings within the study population, the likelihood of dying from cancer or other causes at one year was 13 percent higher for African Americans. At three years, their risk was 23 percent higher than their Caucasian counterparts......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

February 18, 2010, 9:50 PM CT

Natural Compound that Inhibits Cancer Cell Migration

Investigators at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham, formerly Burnham Institute for Medical Research) led by Kristiina Vuori, M.D., Ph.D., have discovered that the natural compound sceptrin, which is found in marine sponges, reduces cancer cell motility (movement) and has very low toxicity. Metastasis is one of the deadliest aspects of cancer, so restricting aberrant cell movement is an important step towards advancing therapys. The research was published online in ACS Chemical Biology, in collaboration with Phil S. Baran, Ph.D., of The Scripps Research Institute.

The team tested sceptrin in multiple tumor cell types, including cervical, breast and lung cancers. Sceptrin restricted motility in all cell lines. Further tests showed the compound works by limiting the cells' ability to contract, a critical function for cell motility. The scientists also observed that sceptrin synthesized in the laboratory was just as effective at combating motility as the naturally-derived compound.

"Given the recently achieved synthesis of sceptrin in multi-gram quantities by the Baran laboratory, sceptrin could prove to be an attractive lead molecule for further preclinical testing and development for therapeutic purposes," said Dr. Vuori. "It may also prove to be a useful research tool in order to elucidate the mechanisms involved in cell motility"......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

February 10, 2010, 8:04 AM CT

How to kill pediatric brain tumors

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown once again that "ready, fire, aim," nonsensical though it may sound, can be an essential approach to research.

The researchers robotically "fired" 2,000 compounds into culture plates containing tumor cells to see if the compounds had any effect. When the robotic screener found one substance had scored a hit by inhibiting growth of the tumor cells in its plate, scientists analyzed what that compound acted against. Follow-up studies showed that the drug slowed tumor growth in mice by inhibiting the function of a protein called STAT3.

As a result, scientists now have a previously unrecognized target, STAT3, at which they can "aim" new drugs for the therapy of cancer in neurofibromatosis-1 (NF1), a genetic condition that causes increased risk of non-malignant and cancerous brain tumors.

"We were excited to find that the slowed tumor growth we observed following therapy resulted from increased tumor cell death - an effect we hadn't seen before when we blocked other NF1 growth control molecules," says senior author David H. Gutmann, M.D., Ph.D., the Donald O. Schnuck Family Professor of Neurology. "Now we can identify the genes that STAT3 influences to fine-tune our therapys and ensure that we kill cancer cells with minimal harm to normal cells"......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

February 3, 2010, 7:58 AM CT

Community Hospitals as Safe Surgical Option

Low-risk patients who require certain cancer surgeries can have the procedures performed with low operative mortality rates at community hospitals, as per a newly released study.

The research showed that for 13 different kinds of cancer surgeries such as gastric and colon, younger patients with few pre-existing illnesses survived operations at community hospitals at a similar rate as at cancer centers.

But patients who are considered high risk or who need complicated cancer surgeries have a higher survival rate at specialized cancer centers. Patients with pancreatic and esophageal cancer, among the most complex cancer surgeries, are twice as likely to survive an operation at a specialized cancer center. The study defined these centers as those designated as Comprehensive Cancer Centers by the National Cancer Institute and those that have the highest volume of specific cancer surgeries.

The study from Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine and the American College of Surgeons will be published in a future issue of the Annals of Surgery and is accessible via its Web site. The study measured the death rates (known according toioperative mortality) after surgery.

Main author Karl Bilimoria, M.D., surgery resident at the Feinberg School and a research fellow at the American College of Surgeons, noted that the study does not look at long-term survival after surgery or factors that affect long-term outcomes, such as whether surgery removed all of the cancer......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source

February 1, 2010, 8:09 AM CT

Quality radiation therapy

The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) has issued a statement today in the wake of several recent articles in the New York Times yesterday and earlier in the week that discuss many rare but tragic events in the last decade involving people undergoing radiation treatment.

While it does not specifically comment on the details of these events, the statement acknowledges their gravity. It reads in part: "The AAPM and its members deeply regret that these events have occurred, and we continue to work hard to reduce the likelihood of similar events in the future." The full statement appears at: http://www.aapm.org/publicgeneral/QualityRadiationTherapy.asp.

Today's statement also seeks to reassure the public on the safety of radiation treatment, which is safely and effectively used to treat hundreds of thousands of people with cancer and other diseases every year in the United States. Medical physicists in hospitals and clinics across the United States are board-certified professionals who play a key role in assuring quality during these therapys because they are directly responsible for overseeing the complex technical equipment used.

"The primary day-to-day responsibility of our members is to safeguard the welfare of people undergoing radiation treatment," says AAPM President Michael G. Herman, Ph.D. FAAPM, FACMP. "While adverse events during such therapys are very rare, the recent articles serve as a poignant reminder that they still occur, and like all medical professionals, we are deeply saddened by the stories of human tragedy when they do"......... Posted by: Jesmi24      Read more         Source