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Jury Still Out on Statins in Cancer
MedPage Today
(Posted: 04/16/2013) - Can statins, the widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs, play a role in cancer treatment? Three studies presented here this week at the annual meeting of the AACR suggest – at a casual glance – that the answer is Yes... Investigators led by Katherine McGlynn, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., used data from a large health maintenance organization to compare 75 liver cancer patients with 373 matched controls. In a univariate analysis, statin use was associated with a statistically significant 40% reduction in the risk of liver cancer.
Researchers find nanodiamonds could improve effectiveness of breast cancer treatment
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 04/16/2013) - UCLA researchers and collaborators have developed a potentially more effective treatment for "triple-negative" breast cancer that uses nanoscale, diamond-like particles called nanodiamonds. Nanodiamonds are between 4 and 6 nanometers in diameter and are shaped like tiny soccer balls. Byproducts of conventional mining and refining operations, the particles can form clusters following drug binding and have the ability to precisely deliver cancer drugs to tumors, significantly improving the drugs' desired effect. UCLA is home to the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. The research team included contributors from the NanoCarbon Research Institute in Nagano, Japan and UC San Francisco, home of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Testing lung cancer drugs and therapies in mice
NCI News Note
(Posted: 04/15/2013) - National Cancer Institute (NCI) investigators have designed a genetically engineered mouse for use in the study of human lung squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). SCC is a type of non-small cell lung carcinoma, one of the most common types of lung cancer, with a five-year survival rate of about 15 percent.
A novel surface marker helps scientists ‘fish out’ mammary gland stem cells
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 04/15/2013) - In a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) used a mouse model to identify a novel cell surface marker on mammary gland stem cells. Using that marker, the team was able to assemble a sample of mammary gland stem cells of unprecedented purity. Until now, isolating pure mammary gland stem cells, which are important in mammary gland development as well as breast cancer formation, has posed a challenge.
Electrical pulse treatment pokes holes in hard-to-treat tumors
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 04/15/2013) - A new, minimally invasive treatment that tears microscopic holes in tumors without harming healthy tissue is a promising treatment for challenging cancers, suggests a preliminary study being presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 38th Annual Scientific Meeting in New Orleans. The study, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, uses irreversible electroporation (or IRE) as a new way to attack cancer, using microsecond electrical pulses to kill cancer at the cellular level without damaging healthy tissue nearby.
Icy therapy spot treats cancer in the lung
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 04/15/2013) - A new, minimally invasive treatment that tears microscopic holes in tumors without harming healthy tissue is a promising treatment for challenging cancers, suggests a preliminary study being presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 38th Annual Scientific Meeting in New Orleans. The study, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, uses irreversible electroporation (or IRE) as a new way to attack cancer, using microsecond electrical pulses to kill cancer at the cellular level without damaging healthy tissue nearby.
New Clues to How Exercise May Reduce Breast Cancer Risk
HealthDay
(Posted: 04/11/2013) - Older women who are physically active have lower levels of estrogen and its breakdown products in their bodies, according to a new study, perhaps explaining why exercise may reduce breast cancer risk... The new study provides more clues as to how the exercise may be protective, said Cher Dallal, a cancer prevention fellow at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
Signature of circulating breast tumor cells that spread to the brain found
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 04/11/2013) - Some breast tumor circulating cells in the bloodstream are marked by a constellation of biomarkers that identify them as those destined to seed the brain with a deadly spread of cancer, said researchers led by those at Baylor College of Medicine and the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, in a report that appears online in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
UNC researchers engineer 'protein switch' to dissect role of cancer’s key players
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 04/11/2013) - Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have “rationally rewired” some of the cell’s smallest components to create proteins that can be switched on or off by command. These “protein switches” can be used to interrogate the inner workings of each cell, helping scientists uncover the molecular mechanisms of human health and disease. In the first application of this approach, the UNC researchers showed how a protein called Src kinase influences the way cells extend and move, a previously unknown role that is consistent with the protein’s ties to tumor progression and metastasis. UNC is home to the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Certain breast cancer patients may benefit from combined HER-2 targeted treatment without chemotherapy
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 04/10/2013) - In a report that appears online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers have shown that a subset of breast cancer patients who have tumors overexpressing a protein called the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2 positive) may benefit from a combination of targeted treatments that zero in on the breast cancer cells themselves. That could enable some women to avoid the "sledgehammer" of typical chemotherapy drugs that kill normal and tumor cells alike and avoid triggering resistance in tumor cells. Institutions taking part in the study were: the Baylor College of Medicine (home to the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center), Vanderbilt University (home of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center), the University of Alabama Birmingham (home of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center), the University of Chicago (home of the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center), the Mayo Clinic, and the Methodist Hospital.
MedPage Today
(Posted: 04/16/2013) - Can statins, the widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs, play a role in cancer treatment? Three studies presented here this week at the annual meeting of the AACR suggest – at a casual glance – that the answer is Yes... Investigators led by Katherine McGlynn, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., used data from a large health maintenance organization to compare 75 liver cancer patients with 373 matched controls. In a univariate analysis, statin use was associated with a statistically significant 40% reduction in the risk of liver cancer.
Researchers find nanodiamonds could improve effectiveness of breast cancer treatment
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 04/16/2013) - UCLA researchers and collaborators have developed a potentially more effective treatment for "triple-negative" breast cancer that uses nanoscale, diamond-like particles called nanodiamonds. Nanodiamonds are between 4 and 6 nanometers in diameter and are shaped like tiny soccer balls. Byproducts of conventional mining and refining operations, the particles can form clusters following drug binding and have the ability to precisely deliver cancer drugs to tumors, significantly improving the drugs' desired effect. UCLA is home to the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. The research team included contributors from the NanoCarbon Research Institute in Nagano, Japan and UC San Francisco, home of the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Testing lung cancer drugs and therapies in mice
NCI News Note
(Posted: 04/15/2013) - National Cancer Institute (NCI) investigators have designed a genetically engineered mouse for use in the study of human lung squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). SCC is a type of non-small cell lung carcinoma, one of the most common types of lung cancer, with a five-year survival rate of about 15 percent.
A novel surface marker helps scientists ‘fish out’ mammary gland stem cells
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 04/15/2013) - In a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) used a mouse model to identify a novel cell surface marker on mammary gland stem cells. Using that marker, the team was able to assemble a sample of mammary gland stem cells of unprecedented purity. Until now, isolating pure mammary gland stem cells, which are important in mammary gland development as well as breast cancer formation, has posed a challenge.
Electrical pulse treatment pokes holes in hard-to-treat tumors
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 04/15/2013) - A new, minimally invasive treatment that tears microscopic holes in tumors without harming healthy tissue is a promising treatment for challenging cancers, suggests a preliminary study being presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 38th Annual Scientific Meeting in New Orleans. The study, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, uses irreversible electroporation (or IRE) as a new way to attack cancer, using microsecond electrical pulses to kill cancer at the cellular level without damaging healthy tissue nearby.
Icy therapy spot treats cancer in the lung
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 04/15/2013) - A new, minimally invasive treatment that tears microscopic holes in tumors without harming healthy tissue is a promising treatment for challenging cancers, suggests a preliminary study being presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 38th Annual Scientific Meeting in New Orleans. The study, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, uses irreversible electroporation (or IRE) as a new way to attack cancer, using microsecond electrical pulses to kill cancer at the cellular level without damaging healthy tissue nearby.
New Clues to How Exercise May Reduce Breast Cancer Risk
HealthDay
(Posted: 04/11/2013) - Older women who are physically active have lower levels of estrogen and its breakdown products in their bodies, according to a new study, perhaps explaining why exercise may reduce breast cancer risk... The new study provides more clues as to how the exercise may be protective, said Cher Dallal, a cancer prevention fellow at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
Signature of circulating breast tumor cells that spread to the brain found
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 04/11/2013) - Some breast tumor circulating cells in the bloodstream are marked by a constellation of biomarkers that identify them as those destined to seed the brain with a deadly spread of cancer, said researchers led by those at Baylor College of Medicine and the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, in a report that appears online in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
UNC researchers engineer 'protein switch' to dissect role of cancer’s key players
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 04/11/2013) - Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have “rationally rewired” some of the cell’s smallest components to create proteins that can be switched on or off by command. These “protein switches” can be used to interrogate the inner workings of each cell, helping scientists uncover the molecular mechanisms of human health and disease. In the first application of this approach, the UNC researchers showed how a protein called Src kinase influences the way cells extend and move, a previously unknown role that is consistent with the protein’s ties to tumor progression and metastasis. UNC is home to the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Certain breast cancer patients may benefit from combined HER-2 targeted treatment without chemotherapy
NCI Cancer Center News
(Posted: 04/10/2013) - In a report that appears online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers have shown that a subset of breast cancer patients who have tumors overexpressing a protein called the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2 positive) may benefit from a combination of targeted treatments that zero in on the breast cancer cells themselves. That could enable some women to avoid the "sledgehammer" of typical chemotherapy drugs that kill normal and tumor cells alike and avoid triggering resistance in tumor cells. Institutions taking part in the study were: the Baylor College of Medicine (home to the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center), Vanderbilt University (home of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center), the University of Alabama Birmingham (home of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center), the University of Chicago (home of the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center), the Mayo Clinic, and the Methodist Hospital.
