Archive by category | Cancer

Real-time tissue analysis could guide brain tumor surgery

The intraoperative mass spectrometry platform for image-guided surgery in the Advanced Mutimodality Image Guided Operating (AMIGO) suite at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School as part of the National Center for Image Guided Therapy. Part of the team from left to right: Dr. David Calligaris, Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Sandro Santagata, Neuropathologist, Dr. Alexandra Golby, Neurosurgeon, and Isaiah Norton, Senior Programmer Analyst.

It doesn’t get much more complicated than brain surgery. Surgeons tasked with removing brain tumors have limited information available to help them make decisions about what tissue appears cancerous and how much to excise without damaging brain regions important to key functions such as movement and speech. But decisions about how much to cut might become easier in the near future: A study published today offers a possible way to discern which brain tissue is cancerous and guide surgeons in real time. The research, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, uses a technique formerly confined to analytical chemistry labs, called mass spectrometry, to make this determination right in the operating room.  Read more

Bundled RNA balls silence brain cancer gene expression

Bundled RNA balls silence brain cancer gene expression

Scientists have developed a nanotechnology-based way to silence a key genetic switch involved in the formation of glioblastoma brain cancer. The technique, which delayed tumor growth in mice, consists of an injection of synthetic balls of RNA with a gold nanoparticle core. Researchers think similarly engineered RNA blobs, called spherical nucleic acids (SNAs), could eventually be used to treat Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative ailments.  Read more

Surprising epigenetic switch for ‘natural killer’ cells eyed for cancer therapy

Surprising epigenetic switch for ‘natural killer’ cells eyed for cancer therapy

Natural killer cells are the instant assassins of the immune system with the ability to destroy foreign invaders and cancer cells at first sight. Although scientists have been studying how to harness the lethal abilities of these cells for more than three decades, little has been known about how these ‘NK’ cells develop from unspecialized immune cells. Now, researchers have discovered an enzyme that uses an epigenetic pathway—a process that modifies the way a cell’s DNA is read without actually changing the genetic blueprint itself—to boost the growth and function of NK cells.  Read more

74 new susceptibility genes found for breast, ovarian and prostate cancer

74 new susceptibility genes found for breast, ovarian and prostate cancer

In the largest cancer genotyping study to date, an international team of scientists spanning more than 160 research groups has identified 74 new genetic regions associated with breast, ovarian or prostate cancer—a near doubling of the number of susceptibility loci linked to these three hormone-related cancers.  Read more

Patients should learn about secondary genetic risk factors, say recommendations

Imagine getting a chest X-ray to identify the cause of a serious cough. The radiologist finds a shadow that wasn’t causing the cough but could be a tumor. In many cases, it is obvious what to do upon uncovering these sorts of secondary or incidental findings — most doctors would follow up on the search for a possible lung tumor, for example.  Read more

Antibody–drug combo approved for fighting breast cancer

Antibody–drug combo approved for fighting breast cancer

Drug regulators in the US have already approved a handful of drugs for the treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease in which a cell surface protein known as human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2, or HER2, is elevated. Although most women with this type of cancer respond well to at least one of the existing anti-HER2 therapies, some individuals with HER2-positive breast tumors develop drug resistance and remain unresponsive to further treatment. For these women, a new drug combination approved earlier today offers hope.  Read more