(Posted: 05/03/2013) - Researchers at Johns Hopkins (home of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center) have identified a gene that, when repressed in tumor cells, puts a halt to cell growth and a range of processes needed for tumors to enlarge and spread to distant sites. The researchers hope that this so-called “master regulator” gene may be the key to developing a new treatment for tumors resistant to current drugs.

(Posted: 05/01/2013) - A type of low-grade but sometimes lethal brain tumor in children has been found in many cases to contain an unusual mutation that may help to classify, diagnose and guide the treatment of the tumors, report scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The researchers led a study of pediatric low-grade gliomas, samples of which were collected through an international consortium organized by brain tumor specialists at Dana-Farber/Children’s Hospital Cancer Center. Their findings are being published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of April 29.

(Posted: 04/25/2013) - When the eye cancer retinoblastoma is diagnosed in racial and ethnic minority children whose families don't have private health insurance, it often takes a more invasive, potentially life-threatening course than in other children, probably because of delays in diagnosis, researchers at Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center (DF/CHCC) in Boston are reporting at the 26th annual meeting of the American Society of Pediatric Hematology Oncology in Miami, April 24-27.

(Posted: 04/24/2013) - A prospective study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (a component of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) observed an association between risk of second primary cancer and history of non-melanoma skin cancer in white men and women. The researchers found that people with a history of non-melanoma skin cancer had a modestly increased risk of getting cancer in the future, specifically breast and lung cancer in women and melanoma in both men and women. Non-melanoma skin cancer, which includes basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma, is the most common form of cancer in the United States.

(Posted: 04/23/2013) - Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University (home of the Albert Einstein Cancer Center) have developed a therapy for pancreatic cancer that uses Listeria bacteria to selectively infect tumor cells and deliver radioisotopes into them. The experimental treatment dramatically decreased the number of metastases (cancers that have spread to other parts of the body) in a mouse model of highly aggressive pancreatic cancer without harming healthy tissue. The study was published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

(Posted: 04/23/2013) - Researchers from Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah have developed a novel and powerful technique to identify the targets for a group of enzymes called RNA cytosine methyltransferases (RMTs) in human RNA. They applied their technique to a particular RMT, NSUN2, which has been implicated in mental retardation and cancers in humans, finding and validating many previously unknown RMT targets—an indication of the technique’s power. The research results were published online in the journal Nature Biotechnology on April 21.

(Posted: 04/23/2013) - A new study led by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) suggests that an unusual experimental drug can reduce breast-cancer aggressiveness, reverse resistance to the drug fulvestrant and perhaps improve the effectiveness of other breast-cancer drugs. The findings of the laboratory and animal study, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, suggest a new strategy for treating breast cancer, the researchers say.

(Posted: 04/22/2013) - A monoclonal antibody targeting a protein known as SFPR2 has been shown by researchers at the University of North Carolina and its Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center to inhibit tumor growth in pre-clinical models of breast cancer and angiosarcoma. In a paper published in the April 19 issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, a team used a monoclonal antibody to target SFRP2 expressed in cells from triple-negative breast cancer and the aggressive blood-vessel malignancy angiosarcoma, reducing the rate of tumor growth.

(Posted: 04/22/2013) - A new study from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center demonstrates a significant correlation between poorer performance on neuropsychological tests and memory complaints in post-treatment, early-stage breast cancer patients — particularly those who have undergone combined chemotherapy and radiation.

(Posted: 04/22/2013) - A massive study analyzing gene expression data from 22 tumor types has identified multiple metabolic expression changes associated with cancer. The analysis, conducted by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (home of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center), also identified hundreds of potential drug targets that could cut off a tumor’s fuel supply or interfere with its ability to synthesize essential building blocks. The study was published in the online edition of Nature Biotechnology.