Cancer News and Discussions

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CAR-NKT cell therapy shows promising results against neuroblastoma in phase 1 clinical trial
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05- ... stoma.html
by Baylor College of Medicine
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children's Cancer Center and collaborating institutions report interim results from a first-in-human phase 1 clinical trial evaluating the safety, antitumor activity and immunological characteristics of a genetically engineered natural killer T (NKT) cell immunotherapy for neuroblastoma, a childhood tumor that most commonly arises in the adrenal gland. The study published in Nature Medicine shows the treatment was well tolerated, and researchers observed early evidence of strong antitumor activity.

NKT cells were modified to express a GD2-specific chimeric antigen receptor (GD2 CAR), which enables the immune cells to target a molecule found on the surface of neuroblastoma cells, and interleukin-15 (IL-15), a natural protein that supports NKT cell survival. In a previous Nature Medicine publication, the authors reported interim results from the first three children enrolled on this trial.
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A new tool to study cell movement promises to advance cancer research
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05- ... ancer.html
by University of Minnesota
Some diseases can be diagnosed by identifying physical changes in tissue, such as the hardening of arteries during heart disease. Diseased cells often exhibit different mechanical characteristics, or mechanotypes, than normal cells. Efficient tools for measuring mechanotypes could allow doctors to diagnose diseases at an early stage, predict whether a tumor might metastasize, and identify effective drugs and genes linked to certain diseases.

In a promising development for cancer screening and treatment, groundbreaking research published in Nature Communications by a team of U of M researchers from the Medical School and College of Biological Sciences has led to a new laboratory test to measure cell mechanotypes quickly and easily.

Cells constantly move through the body and interact with other cells. Cancer cells may move more aggressively than other cells, in some cases pulling on the tissue around them. Metastatic cancer cells sometimes exhibit less pull than others. In the past 25 years, scientists have evaluated these pulling forces with tools like microscopy, which are effective but difficult to use and time-intensive, resulting in bottlenecks for cancer research.
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Researchers identify potential new strategy to prevent side effects from immunotherapy

by Denise Heady, University of California, Los Angeles
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05- ... erapy.html
A study led by researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center suggests that IL-21, a soluble molecule involved in activating the immune system, can be a potential therapeutic target to help reduce endocrine autoimmune side effects caused by checkpoint inhibitor cancer therapy.

The investigators found that a specific group of CD8+ immune cells with strong killing activity, called CXCR6+ IFN-γ cytotoxic CD8+ T cells, play a central role in this autoimmune attack. They also found the activity of these CD8+ cells were controlled by IL-21 and blocking IL-21 prevented thyroid autoimmunity.
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Australian nanomedicine research into drug delivery system a 'milestone' in the treatment of childhood cancer
https://phys.org/news/2023-05-australia ... stone.html
by Children's Cancer Institute Australia
Australian nanomedicine researchers have come up with a new approach to solving a decades-old clinical problem: getting treatment drugs to act selectively on cancer cells in the body. Published this week in Science Translational Medicine, the research paves the way to safer and more effective treatment options for children with aggressive blood cancers, and potentially other types of cancer as well.

Chemotherapy is the mainstay of treatment for leukemia, the most common blood cancer in children. However, while chemotherapy can be very effective for certain types of leukemia, it is not as effective for some other types, known as "high-risk" leukemias. Treatment for high-risk leukemias generally involves high doses of toxic drugs that flood the body, indiscriminately affecting cancer cells and healthy cells alike. This often leads to severe side effects, as well as lifelong health issues in survivors.
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Blocking a key immune protein improves radiation therapy for cancer
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05- ... erapy.html
by University of Chicago

Up to 60% of cancer patients receive radiation therapy, but it doesn't always work. Failure of these treatments results from tumor regrowth at the primary tumor site, or when the tumor metastasizes to another part of the body. New research from the University of Chicago looks to overcome resistance to radiotherapy by suppressing a key protein and allowing the immune system to join the fight as well.

The study, published May 25 in Cancer Cell, shows how a drug treatment that inhibits YTHDF2 (or Y2), a protein that suppresses the immune response following radiotherapy, can improve results from radiation alone or when combined with immunotherapy. This treatment also prevents progression of metastasis at distant sites that sometimes occurs after local radiation, which makes Y2 a promising target for future combined treatment plans.

"These findings are of potential clinical significance because not only can we enhance the local effects of radiation, but we can also eliminate these adverse distant effects of radiation," said Ralph Weichselbaum, MD, Daniel K. Ludwig Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of Radiation and Cellular Oncology at UChicago, and senior author of the study. "I think these findings could alter radiotherapy practice."
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Research team develops new system for imaging and treating tumors
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05- ... umors.html
by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Thanks to the radiation they emit, radioactive compounds are suited both to imaging and treating cancers. By appropriately combining them in novel, so-called radionuclide theranostics, both applications can be dovetailed. A radiopharmacy team at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and Heidelberg University has now presented such a system in the Journal of the American Chemical Society that successfully solves one of the biggest problems to date: it works at physiologically relevant temperatures.

"Basically, we can think of it as functioning like a smart key that we use to control our automobiles. We use so-called radionuclides, i.e., unstable atomic nuclei, that spontaneously emit ionized radiation when they decay. We track down the tumor with a diagnostic radionuclide. The targeted internal irradiation close to the diseased tissue is then taken on by a different, therapeutic radionuclide," says Dr. Manja Kubeil of HZDR's Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, describing her theranostic approach.
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Gas-releasing adjuvant improves efficacy of photothermal therapy for cancer
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05- ... erapy.html
by Wiley

Hydrogen sulfide is usually a highly toxic gas. However, with careful preparation, it can be used to support photothermal therapy (PTT) in treating cancer, as a team of researchers reporting in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition has recently discovered. As the team reports, an adjuvant releasing hydrogen sulfide causes tumor cells to lose their natural heat protection and thus to become significantly more sensitive to PTT.

Breathing in gaseous hydrogen sulfide usually causes us to suffocate, because the gas suppresses the respiratory chain in the mitochondria, the power houses of the cells. However, molecular hydrogen sulfide, when delivered in small amounts to cells, is not entirely toxic. Instead, it also acts as a messenger molecule and plays a role in cancer cell growth. With this in mind, a team of researchers working with Xiaoyuan (Shawn) Chen of the National University of Singapore, focused on the effects of hydrogen sulfide in the heat protection mechanisms of tumor cells.
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New molecule chops up RNA of "undruggable" common cancer-causing gene
By Michael Irving
May 28, 2023
https://newatlas.com/medical/rna-myc-un ... sing-gene/
A gene called MYC is implicated in the majority of cancers, but unfortunately it’s often considered “undruggable.” In a new study scientists have developed a molecule that chops up the RNA of this gene, effectively clearing cancer in mice.

The MYC gene plays a key role in regulating cell proliferation, metabolism and controlled cell death, but it’s not always helpful. In fact, it’s been implicated in as many as 70% of all human cancers, covering a wide range of types of the disease, and overexpression is associated with worse outcomes for patients.

That makes it an attractive target for treatment, but unfortunately it’s not that simple. The associated MYC protein has a strange shape that makes it hard for drug molecules to latch onto, leading it to be considered mostly undruggable.

But a new study might be a step towards changing that. Researchers at The Wertheim UF Scripps Institute, Max Planck Institute and the University of Münster have developed a way to bypass the tricky protein and shut down the gene by instead targeting its messenger RNA (mRNA). These molecules transcribe DNA to produce proteins, so interrupting that process can prevent the proteins being made rather than inactivating those already produced.
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Team develops nanoparticles to deliver brain cancer treatment
https://phys.org/news/2023-05-team-nano ... tment.html
by Bridget Druery, University of Queensland
University of Queensland researchers have developed a nanoparticle to take a chemotherapy drug into fast growing, aggressive brain tumors.

Research team lead Dr. Taskeen Janjua from UQ's School of Pharmacy said the new silica nanoparticle can be loaded with temozolomide, a small molecule drug used to treat tumors known as glioblastoma.

"This chemotherapy drug has limitations—it doesn't stay in the blood for very long, it can be pushed out of the brain, and it doesn't have high penetration from blood into the brain," Dr. Janjua said.

"To make the drug more effective, we developed an ultra-small, large pore nanoparticle to help it move through the blood-brain barrier and penetrate the tumor while also reducing unwanted patient side effects.
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Novel bioassay predicts cancer patients' response to immunotherapy
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05- ... erapy.html
by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
A team of researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) has developed a groundbreaking bio-sensing technology that predicts the response of cancer patients to anti-PD1, an immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy, with significantly greater accuracy than current methods.

The study's results were published late last week in Science Advances.

The study was led by Bar Kaufman, a talented MD-Ph.D. student, and Master's student Orli Abramov, under the guidance of Prof. Moshe Elkabets and Prof. Angel Porgador from the Faculty of Health Sciences at BGU, along with collaborators from Soroka Medical Center and Barzilai Hospital.

This bio-sensing technology, called the Immuno-checkpoint Artificial Reporter with overexpression of PD1 (IcAR-PD1), measures the binding functionality of PD1 ligands, PDL1 and PDL2, to their receptor PD1.
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