Cancer News and Discussions

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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/heal ... H67Ptv96EA

Researchers at Stanford devised a strange new molecule that could lead to drugs that arm genes and make cancers work against themselves

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Scientists Discover a New, Unexpected Way That Cancer Cells Spread
by David Neld
July 31, 2023

Introduction:

(Science Alert) One of the challenges in treating cancer is stopping it from metastasizing, and a new study reveals one of the fundamental mechanisms through which this happens. Now we know about this mechanism, perhaps we can stop it.

Key to this newly discovered process is GRP78, and it's what's known as a chaperone protein. It's a type of protein that lends a hand in the folding or unfolding of larger proteins, basically building them up (or tearing them down), which then affects whether they're biologically active and functional.
A team led by the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) in the US found that cancer cells can hijack GRP78, using the protein to spread further in the body and resist treatment.

This appears to happen because the protein migrates when under stress. GRP78 is usually found in the endoplasmic reticulum part of a cell, but this research shows it moving to the nucleus and changing the cell behavior.

"Seeing GRP78 in the nucleus controlling gene expression is a total surprise," says Amy Lee, a biochemist and molecular biologist at USC.

Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/scientist ... ls-spread

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AI-supported mammography screening saves time & detects more cancer
By Paul McClure
https://newatlas.com/medical/ai-support ... re-cancer/
August 02, 2023

A new study has found that a single radiologist screening mammograms picked up more incidents of breast cancer and was more efficient when supported by AI. The researchers say their approach would be a safe alternative to having two radiologists ‘double read’ the scans.

For many women, having regular mammograms is the best way of detecting breast cancer early, when it’s easier to treat and before it’s big enough to feel or cause symptoms.

Australia and many European countries employ ‘double reading’ of mammograms, meaning that the scans are reviewed by two radiologists, each giving an independent opinion. The rationale is that using two sets of eyes increases the likelihood that cancer will be detected. In the US, a single radiologist plus computer-aided detection (CAD), a computer program that scans the mammogram and marks potentially abnormal areas, is more common.

A new drug prevents epithelial-mesenchymal transition, metastasis and resistance to anti-cancer therapy
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08- ... tance.html
by Université libre de Bruxelles

Metastases and resistance to chemotherapy are the main causes of treatment failure and mortality in cancer patients. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a process by which cancer cells detach from their neighboring cells and acquire invasive properties, plays a key role in the formation of metastases and the development of resistance to anti-cancer treatments. To date, there is no therapy targeting EMT in cancer.

In a study published in Nature, researchers led by Pr Cédric Blanpain—WEL Research Institute investigator, director of the Stem Cells and Cancer Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine and professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles showed that netrin- 1, a molecule expressed by tumor cells in different types of cancers, stimulates the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in tumor cells and a drug targeting netrin-1 blocks EMT in cancer.

Justine Lengrand, Ievgenia Pastushenko and Sebastiaan Vanuytven and her colleagues found that cancer cells presenting EMT express high levels of netrin-1 and its receptor UNC5B. Researchers have shown that increasing netrin-1 promotes EMT, while targeting netrin-1 decreases EMT.

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Common blood thinner may double as cancer therapy
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08- ... erapy.html
by Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Warfarin, a widely used blood thinner, appears to have potent anti-cancer properties, according to a study by Columbia University researchers. The study, conducted in human cells and in mice, found that warfarin stops tumors from interfering with a self-destruct mechanism that cells initiate when they detect mutations or other abnormalities.

"Our findings suggest that warfarin, which is already approved by the FDA, could be repurposed to treat a variety of cancers, including pancreatic cancer," says study leader Wei Gu, Ph.D., the Abraham and Mildred Goldstein Professor of Pathology & Cell Biology (in the Institute for Cancer Genetics) at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

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A Report on New Research Regarding T Cells and Cancer
by Mary Philip and Michael Rudloff
August 3, 2023

Introduction:

(The Conversation) A key function of our immune system is to detect and eliminate foreign pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. Immune cells like T cells do this by distinguishing between different types of proteins within cells, which allows them to detect the presence of infection or disease.
…
We are researchers who study ways to harness the immune system to treat cancer. Scientists like us have been working to determine the mechanisms controlling how well T cells function against tumors. In our newly published research, we found that T cells become exhausted within hours after encountering cancer cells.
…
Boosting T cell killing

Altogether, our research suggests that T cells in tumors are not necessarily working hard and getting exhausted. Rather, they are blocked right from the start. This is because the negative signals cancer cells send out to their surrounding environment induce T cell dysfunction, and a lack of positive signals like inflammation results in a failure to kick T cells into high gear.

Our team is now exploring strategies to stimulate inflammatory pathways in T cells encountering cancer cells to make them function as though they are encountering an infection. Our hope is that this will help T cells kill their cancer targets more effectively.

Read more here: https://theconversation.com/immune-cel ... h-210947

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Dana-Farber Artificial Intelligence-Model Predicts Primary Source of Cancer Using Gene Sequencing Data
August 7, 2023

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) BOSTON – Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have created an AI-based tool that uses tumor gene sequencing data to predict the primary source of a patient’s cancer. The study, published in in Nature Medicine, suggests that this predictive tool, called OncoNPC, could help guide treatment of cancer and improve outcomes in difficult to diagnose cases.

The primary source of cancer is traditionally diagnosed by a standardized diagnostic work-up, including radiology and pathology assessments based on slides of cells taken from a tumor biopsy. In 3-5% of cancer cases, the original source of the tumor cannot be determined.

In these cases, patients are diagnosed with cancers of unknown primary (CUP) and have few treatment options because most treatments are approved for a specific type of cancer.

“This patient group has dismal outcomes,” says Dana-Farber researcher and senior author Alexander Gusev, PhD.

The team found that the AI model’s predictions could have value for these patients. A retrospective analysis suggested that this additional piece of diagnostic information about the primary source of the tumor could help doctors select treatments that improve survival.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/997745

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Heart medication improves the efficacy of current treatments for melanoma in mouse models
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08- ... ments.html
by Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona)

A collaborative study undertaken by the Navarrabiomed Biomedical Research Center (Pamplona, Navarre), the Institute of Neurosciences CSIC-UMH (Sant Joan d'Alacant, Valencian Community) and IRB Barcelona (Barcelona, Catalonia) shows that the administration of ranolazine, a drug currently used to treat heart conditions, improves the efficacy of current therapies for melanoma, in mouse models of this disease.

The journal Nature Metabolism has published the results of the study, which offers an alternative therapeutic approach to treat melanoma, the most deadly type of skin cancer, which affects 16.3 women and 14.6 men per 100,000 inhabitants in Spain.

The development of future clinical trials to validate and confirm the action of ranolazine in cancer patients will be facilitated by the fact that it has already been approved for use in humans and is being administered in clinical practice to treat chronic angina.
Details about the study

In most cases, patients with melanoma respond well to therapies directed against one of the key genes in tumor progression, namely BRAF. However, they soon develop resistance to these therapies and the tumors grow back. In addition, the latest clinical studies suggest that these patients show a poorer response to immunotherapy.

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A CAR T cell therapy for advanced ovarian cancer developed

by City of Hope National Medical Center
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08- ... arian.html

There are currently few effective treatment options for patients with recurrent ovarian cancer and other solid tumors, but City of Hope researchers are trying to change that.

Researchers with City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the nation, have published preclinical research in Nature Communications demonstrating that a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered T cell therapy worked against ovarian cancer in the laboratory and in preclinical models.

"City of Hope's research helped develop CAR T cell therapies for blood cancers, and these patients are now seeing long-term benefits from the therapy, but we can't stop there," said Saul Priceman, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation and associate director of Translational Sciences & Technologies in the T Cell Therapeutics Research Laboratories at City of Hope. "The next frontier is solid tumors, and City of Hope is taking on that challenge."

The therapy is currently in a first-in-human Phase 1 trial at City of Hope for patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer who have already received platinum-based chemotherapy. The trial, led by Lorna Rodriguez-Rodriguez, M.D., Ph.D., City of Hope professor in its Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Surgery, is testing the therapy's safety, side effects and activity of the therapy in patients. The trial is currently enrolling patients for treatment.

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Novel single-cell nanopore sequencing tool accelerates analysis of tumor cells
https://phys.org/news/2023-08-single-ce ... lysis.html
by Melissa Rohman, Northwestern University

Northwestern Medicine investigators led by Ruli Gao, Ph.D., assistant professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, have developed a novel genetic sequencing tool that accelerates sequencing analysis of same-cell genotypes and phenotypes in tumors, as detailed in a study published in Nature Communications.

Single-cell nanopore RNA sequencing is a newer type of genetic sequencing that pushes forward current high-throughput single-cell RNA sequencing techniques from next-generation sequencing (NGS), which can only sequence short strands of RNAs, to long-read third-generation sequencing (TGS), which can directly measure the full length of RNAs.

However, the advanced technique is also known to produce high sequencing errors and also relies either on short-reads sequencing—generating matched NGS data to guide the identification of cellular data—or on using a barcode whitelist to split the data into true cells and single molecules.

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Study finds improved survival for incurable brain tumor, providing 'a crack in the armor'

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08- ... armor.html