Rock And Rho: Proteins That Help Cancer Cells Groove
Cells' adaptations to low oxygen conditions inside tumors promote breast cancer’s spread.Biologists at The Johns Hopkins University have discovered that low oxygen conditions, which often persist inside tumors, are sufficient to initiate a molecular chain of events that transforms breast cancer cells from being rigid and stationary to mobile and invasive. Their evidence, published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Dec. 9, underlines the importance of hypoxia-inducible factors in promoting breast cancer metastasis.
“High levels of RhoA and ROCK1 were known to worsen outcomes for breast cancer patients by endowing cancer cells with the ability to move, but the trigger for their production was a mystery,” says Gregg Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., the C. Michael Armstrong Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and senior author of the article. “We now know that the production of these proteins increases dramatically when breast cancer cells are exposed to low oxygen conditions.”
Researchers find potential new treatment approach for pancreatic cancer
Scientists from The University of Manchester – part of Manchester Cancer Research Centre believe they have discovered a new way to make chemotherapy treatment more effective for pancreatic cancer patients.
Laboratory Study Confirms Target of Potent Chronic Leukemia Drug
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) helps confirm that a molecule targeted by the experimental drug ibrutinib is critical for the development of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the most common form of adult leukemia.
In clinical trials, ibrutinib has often shown exceptional activity in people with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The agent targets a molecule called Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK). It permanently incapacitates the molecule, and this stops the transmission of an important signal that promotes cell growth and proliferation.
Boosting the immune system to treat brain cancer
Researchers at the University of Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI) have made a discovery that could lead to better treatment for patients suffering from brain cancer.
Despite current treatment strategies, the median survival for patients with the most aggressive brain cancer – called glioblastoma, is 15 months. Less than five per cent of patients survive beyond five years.
Promising results for Swedish cancer drug candidate
A new study conducted by scientists from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School and Karolinska Institutet presents very promising results for the treatment of the cancer form multiple myeloma. The drug candidate used in the research has been developed by scientists from Karolinska Institutet and a Swedish company following its initial identification at the same university. The findings are so promising that the scientists are teaming up with Harvard to bring the drug to clinical trials on patients.