Cancer News and Discussions

[firestar464]

Literally me irl

[raklian]

About the only thing you can drink is coffee and water...Otherwise you're fucked.

Don't forget teas.

[weatheriscool]

Researcher reach milestone in the treatment of anemia in chronic lymphocytic leukemia
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-07- ... cytic.html
by Leipzig University

In people with myelodysplastic neoplasms (MDS), a usually benign form of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the body produces too few functional blood cells. Affected individuals suffer from anemia—a lack of red blood cells or hemoglobin—which can be a precursor to acute leukemia.

Compared to the standard treatment, luspatercept can increase hemoglobin levels in MDS patients and help them to avoid blood transfusions. These are the findings of an international clinical trial led by Professor Uwe Platzbecker from Leipzig University and the University of Leipzig Medical Center in collaboration with a large international research team.

Every year, around 4,000 people in Germany alone are diagnosed with myelodysplastic neoplasms (MDS). In these patients, the healthy maturation of blood cells is disrupted, which can lead to anemia, infections and an increased risk of bleeding. High-risk MDS is characterized by rapid progression, severe symptoms and often a transition to acute leukemia that results in a short life expectancy.

Patients who fall into the low-risk category of MDS are not initially in an acutely life-threatening situation, but often suffer from mild to moderate anemia as a result of a lack of mature and functional red blood cells.

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mRNA Trojan Horse tricks cancer into making toxins to kill itself
By Michael Irving
July 04, 2023

Scientists have developed and tested a new potential treatment for cancer that works in a similar way to the COVID-19 vaccines. The technique involves delivering mRNA molecules to cancer cells and tricking them into producing toxic proteins that kill the tumors.

Inside all living cells are ribosomes, which are essentially tiny factories that produce proteins. Exactly which proteins they make depends on the 'blueprints' they receive, and these come from messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules.

Over the past few decades, scientists have found that they can hijack this mechanism to make beneficial proteins on demand. This mRNA technology was greatly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as BioNTech and Moderna developed vaccines that worked by coaxing our cells to produce spike proteins similar to the virus, triggering an immune response that trained our body to fight off subsequent infections.

Since then, scientists have turned their sights onto cancer, experimenting with using mRNA to produce proteins that mimic those made by tumors, helping to launch an immune response against the cancer. This could be particularly promising when paired with other treatments like immunotherapy.

https://newatlas.com/medical/mrna-troja ... er-toxins/

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Eliminating extra chromosomes in cancer cells prevents tumor growth, new study reveals
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-07- ... tumor.html
by Yale University

Cancer cells with extra chromosomes depend on those chromosomes for tumor growth, a new Yale study reveals, and eliminating them prevents the cells from forming tumors. The findings, said the researchers, suggest that selectively targeting extra chromosomes may offer a new route for treating cancer.

The study was published July 6 in the journal Science.

Human cells typically have 23 pairs of chromosomes; extra chromosomes are an anomaly known as aneuploidy.

"If you look at normal skin or normal lung tissue, for example, 99.9% of the cells will have the right number of chromosomes," said Jason Sheltzer, assistant professor of surgery at Yale School of Medicine and senior author of the study. "But we've known for over 100 years that nearly all cancers are aneuploid."

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AI tool helps evaluate brain tumors in real time during surgery
By Michael Franco
July 07, 2023
https://newatlas.com/medical/ai-brain-tumors-surgery/

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have developed a new AI-powered tool to help brain surgeons combat cancer. CHARM rapidly evaluates tumorous tissue during surgery to help professionals make on-the-spot decisions about how to proceed.

Traditionally, during brain cancer surgery, doctors remove a sample of tissue, freeze it, and analyze it to determine the type and aggressiveness of tumor. However, this process tends to warp the way the cells look. It also relies on human observation which, even with high-powered microscopes, is not sharp enough to detect the minute genomic variations that can identify how aggressive or passive different tumors are.

Now, the Harvard Medical School (HMS) researchers have enlisted the help of an AI model to assist them with this subtle evaluation. Called Cryosection Histopathology Assessment and Review Machine, or CHARM, the tool was trained on 2,334 brain tumor samples from 1,524 people with glioma, the most common – and most deadly – form of brain cancer. In tests, the system was able to decode a tumor's genetic makeup and find mutations at the molecular level in both the tumors and surrounding tissue with an accuracy rate of 93%.

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Cancer breakthrough uses CRISPR to target extra chromosomes
By Michael Irving
July 09, 2023
https://newatlas.com/medical/cancer-cri ... neuploidy/

Yale scientists have discovered a new potential treatment avenue to fight cancer. Using CRISPR gene-editing, the team eliminated extra chromosomes from cancer cells and found that they could no longer grow out of control.

Healthy human cells have 23 pairs of chromosomes, but it’s been observed for over a century that the majority of cancer cells have extras. This condition is known as aneuploidy, but its exact role in cancer remained a mystery – was it a root cause of cancer or just a symptom of it? In a new study, scientists at Yale investigated that role.

“For a long time, we could observe aneuploidy but not manipulate it,” said Jason Sheltzer, senior author of the study. “We just didn’t have the right tools. But in this study, we used the gene-engineering technique CRISPR to develop a new approach to eliminate entire chromosomes from cancer cells, which is an important technical advance. Being able to manipulate aneuploid chromosomes in this way will lead to a greater understanding of how they function.”

To start with, the team focused on a type of aneuploidy where a cell gains a third copy of a structure called the “q arm” on chromosome 1. This mistake is found in multiple cancer types from an early stage and is linked to disease progression.

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Study discovers tumor monocyte content predicts immunochemotherapy outcomes for esophageal cancer
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-07- ... comes.html
by Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research

A Ludwig Cancer Research study has discovered that the presence of relatively high numbers of immune cells known as monocytes in tumors is linked to better outcomes in esophageal cancer patients treated with a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, or immunochemotherapy.

Esophageal cancer is the sixth leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide, and the incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma has been climbing at a relatively swift clip over the past 40 years. Survival times for inoperable or metastatic forms of the cancer range from 6 to 12 months.

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Discovery in T-cell research could lead to improved treatment of solid tumors
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-07- ... umors.html

A local study led by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) discovered that by inhibiting the function of two proteins, G9a and GLP, during the cell therapy production process, immune cells could become more effective in combatting cancer. These findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, can help advance the development of innovative therapies that could benefit cancer patients, bringing us closer to more effective targeted treatments for solid tumor cancers.

Solid tumors are a major cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Traditional treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery are available, but they have differing efficacy against solid tumors, particularly in advanced stages of the cancer. T-cell therapy has been very successful in targeting liquid tumors such as blood cancers, but the same efficiency has not been observed in solid tumors such as breast, liver or brain cancer.

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New tumor-selective light treatment could kill breast cancer cells with greater accuracy and improve tumor control
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-07- ... cells.html
by National University of Singapore

Breast cancer is the most common cancer affecting women in Singapore. Treatment is multimodal and often involves surgery to remove the cancer and lymph nodes involved.

Adjuvant therapy, given after the initial treatment, is used to irradiate and destroy micrometastases, which are cancer cells in the blood stream or lymphatics, to decrease recurrence. This form of therapy is subdivided into local (radiotherapy) and systemic therapy (endocrine therapy, chemotherapy and targeted therapy).

Studies have shown that patient satisfaction has increased with breast conserving therapy (BCT) where only the tumor and a margin is removed from the body post mastectomy, compared to full mastectomy alone, which removes all parts of the breast. For BCT, radiotherapy has to be administered after lumpectomy, which removes other abnormal tissue from the breast and some normal tissue around it.

[firestar464]

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.

[weatheriscool]

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.

[firestar464]

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

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