A new study has revealed that brain cancer cells can actually evade many current cancer drugs—by temporarily scaling down a certain genetic mutation that the drugs target.
A genetic variation that protects skin against sun damage may also increase the risk of testicular cancer, at least in mice. Researcher Gareth Bond discusses why this relationship may have evolved and how the findings could help to create personalized cancer treatments for humans.
A genetic variant that increases the risk of testicular cancer may be favored by evolution because it helps protect those with fair skin from the sun’s damaging ultraviolet rays, according to a new study.
It’s time to give combination immunotherapy a chance against a broader range of cancers. Historically, such strategies have primarily been investigated for melanoma and kidney cancers.
Scientists from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the Karolinska Institutet report the development of an improved method for analyzing the genes expressed within a single cell. They say their finding will be relevant for everything from basic research to future cancer diagnostics.
Australian scientists say they have discovered a molecule which they believe is responsible for the growth of some cancerous tumours. It provides researchers with a new target for anti cancer therapies.
David Lane, PhD, has been named Scientific Director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. In the new role, which commenced last month, Lane will coordinate Ludwig’s global research efforts and activities.
Research demonstrates a little-appreciated but inescapable fact about cancer: It is an evolutionary disease. And studies are provoking new thinking about ways to use drugs to kill cancerous cells.
Seattle-based Immune Design took a big step forward as a company in 2010 when it struck a deal to let AstraZeneca’s MedImmune unit test out its proprietary vaccine boosters, or adjuvants. Now, it’s got a bigger goal in mind: using a broad collaboration with two big non-profit organizations to break into the hot field of cancer immunotherapy.
One protein that keeps healthy cells from behaving this way is a tumor suppressor named p53. This protein stops potentially precancerous cells from dividing and induces suicide in those that are damaged beyond repair. Not surprisingly, p53’s critical function is disrupted or silenced in many cancers.
A large trial combining two drugs for people with advanced melanoma is due to begin at several Australian hospitals in coming months after a small American study of 52 people found the treatment shrank most participants’ tumours.
Today, many cancer patients are treated with antibody drugs that work in part by marking tumor cells for destruction by macrophages. Although these drugs have extended lives, they don’t always work very well—partly because cancer cells fight back by sending a “don’t eat me” signal to the immune cells.
Cancer researchers are growing increasingly enthusiastic about harnessing the body’s own immune system to fight tumors. And new research shows that two drugs that use this approach may be even better than one.
Merck & Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Roche Holding AG have opened a new front against cancer with the next generation of experimental drugs that use the human immune system to seek and destroy tumor cells.
Researchers have identified a mechanism of action that explains why patients with glioblastoma have not had successful outcomes when treated with inhibitors of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) despite the fact that mTOR is overexpressed in approximately 90% of cases of the disease.
Tumors that arise in the same organs in humans and fish look and behave alike, and the cancers often share common genetic underpinnings. As a result, most researchers believe that the basic mechanisms underlying tumor formation are conserved across species, allowing them to study the formation, expansion, and spread of tumors in animal models with the hope of eventually finding new insights into cancer in people.
The Pap test, which has prevented countless deaths from cervical cancer, may eventually help to detect cancers of the uterus and ovaries as well, a new study suggests.