Cold Spring Harbor scientists determine mechanism of one of the most powerful tumor-suppressor proteins, Chd5
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 01/11/2013) - A team of cancer researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has solved the mystery of how one of the most powerful of the body’s natural tumor-suppressing proteins, called Chd5, exerts its beneficial effects. The findings, published online in the journal Cell Reports, are important because Chd5 engages processes fundamental to cancer prevention. Conversely, when Chd5 is mutated or missing, an important door is opened to cancer initiation.

Drug-resistant melanoma tumors shrink in mice when therapy is interrupted
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 01/10/2013) - Researchers in California and Switzerland, working with mice, have discovered that melanomas that develop resistance to the anti-cancer drug vemurafenib (Zelboraf), also develop addiction to the drug, an observation that may have important implications for the lives of patients with late-stage disease. The team, based at UCSF (home of the Helen Diller Family Comprehsnsive Cancer Center), the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) in Emeryville, Calif., and University Hospital Zurich, found that one mechanism by which melanoma cells become resistant to vemurafenib also renders them “addicted” to the drug. As a result, the melanoma cells nefariously use vemurafenib to spur the growth of rapidly progressing, deadly and drug-resistant tumors. As described this week in the journal Nature, the team built upon this basic discovery and showed that adjusting the dosing of the drug and introducing an on-again, off-again treatment schedule prolonged the life of mice with melanoma.

Johns Hopkins scientists use Pap test fluid to detect ovarian, endometrial cancers
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 01/10/2013) - Using cervical fluid obtained during routine Pap tests, scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have developed a test to detect ovarian and endometrial cancers. In a pilot study, the “PapGene” test, which relies on genomic sequencing of cancer-specific mutations, accurately detected all 24 (100 percent) endometrial cancers and nine of 22 (41 percent) ovarian cancers. Results of the experiments are published in the Jan. 9 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Sickle cells show potential to attack aggressive cancer tumors
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 01/10/2013) - By harnessing the very qualities that make sickle cell disease a lethal blood disorder, a research team led by Duke Medicine (home to the Duke Cancer Institute) and Jenomic, a private cancer research company in Carmel, Calif., has developed a way to deploy the misshapen red blood cells to fight cancer tumors. Reporting in the Jan. 9, 2013, edition of the on-line journal, PLOS ONE, the researchers describe a process of exploiting sickle-shaped red blood cells to selectively target oxygen deprived cancer tumors in mice and block the blood vessels that surround them.

Mayo Clinic study finds two-drug combination may slow deadly thyroid cancer
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 01/09/2013) - A combination of the drugs pazopanib and paclitaxel shows promise in slowing anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC), according to a Mayo Clinic-led study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The two drugs together resulted in greater anti-cancer activity in ATC than either drug alone. Researchers studied anaplastic thyroid cancer cells and tumors in cell culture and in animal models.

MD Anderson study finds lung cancer patients live longer if they use beta-blockers while receiving radiotherapy
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 01/09/2013) - Patients with non-small-cell lung cancer survive longer if they are taking beta-blockers while receiving radiotherapy, according to a study of 722 patients published in the cancer journal Annals of Oncology. Researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reviewed the progress and outcomes of patients who had received radiotherapy as their main or first line of treatment for cancer.

Yale study finds costly breast cancer screenings don’t add up to better outcomes
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 01/08/2013) - Even though Medicare spends over $1 billion per year on breast cancer screenings such as a mammography, there is no evidence that higher spending benefits older women, researchers at Yale School of Medicine and the Yale Cancer Center found in a study published Online First by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

Investigators discover new gene that affects clearance of hepatitis C virus
NCI Press Release
(Posted: 01/07/2013) - Scientists have discovered a new human interferon gene, Interferon Lambda 4 (IFNL4), that affects clearance of the hepatitis C virus. They also identified an inherited genetic variant within IFNL4 that predicts how people respond to treatment for hepatitis C infection.

Report to the Nation shows U.S. cancer death rates continue to drop; Special feature highlights trends in HPV-associated cancers and HPV vaccination coverage levels
NCI Press Release
(Posted: 01/07/2013) - The Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975–2009, shows that overall cancer death rates continued to decline in the United States among both men and women, among all major racial and ethnic groups, and for all of the most common cancer sites, including lung, colon and rectum, female breast, and prostate.


UCSF study compares prostate cancer therapies by cost and effectiveness
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 01/07/2013) - The most comprehensive retrospective study ever conducted comparing how the major types of prostate cancer treatments stack up to each other in terms of saving lives and cost effectiveness is reported this week by a team of researchers at UCSF. Appearing in the British Journal of Urology International, the work analyzed 232 papers published in the last decade that report results from clinical studies following patients with low-, intermediate- and high-risk forms of prostate cancer who were treated with one or more of the standard treatments – radiation therapy, surgery, hormone therapies and brachytherapy. UCSF is home to the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.