Cancer News and Discussions

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caltrek
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Searching for a Cure for Deadly Brain Tumors
March 25, 2022

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/947776

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) A new clinical trial at the University of Cincinnati is studying the effectiveness of a new two-pronged immunotherapy treatment procedure to treat the most aggressive and deadly type of brain tumors, called glioblastomas. Originating from healthy brain cells, glioblastomas can form in any area of the brain.

Mario Zuccarello, MD, said surgeons can remove the visible tumor as long as it does not affect areas of the brain that affect function, but microscopic particles of the tissue remain behind no matter how precise the surgeon is. Because of this, treatment typically includes a combination of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Even with advances in the field over the past few decades, he said the tumors return about nine months after treatment in most cases, and most patients do not survive past 12-15 months after original diagnosis.

“Unfortunately the end result, which is an inability to cure the patient, has remained,” said Zuccarello, the John M. Tew MD endowed chair in neurosurgical oncology at the UC College of Medicine, director of the UC Health Brain Tumor Center and a UC Cancer Center member. “We try to prolong life as much as possible, but the quality of life is a big problem, because these patients are not only subjected to surgical procedures, and sometimes repeated surgical procedures, but also chemotherapy and radiation.”

As researchers continue to discover new receptors and pathways that help the tumors grow, Zuccarello said clinical trials to test new drug targets are essential to move closer to a day where there is a cure for patients with glioblastomas.

UC is currently recruiting for the new trial, operated in collaboration with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical Schoo
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Third COVID-19 vaccination improves immune response in blood cancer patients
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-03- ... blood.html
by University of Southampton

New research has found that the weakened immune systems of blood cancer patients can improve after they receive a third COVID-19 vaccination.

Patients with lymphoma have defects in their immunity system that restrict its response to vaccination. Despite this, this new study found improvements in antibody and T-Cell responses after a third vaccine dose, except in patients who had recently received a certain antibody treatment for their cancer.

The study was funded by the Blood Cancer UK Vaccine Research Collaborative and has been published in the journal Nature Cancer.

"Despite the gradual lifting of COVID-19 restrictions worldwide, a cloud continues to hang over immunosuppressed patients, who may not develop protective immune responses after vaccination," explained Dr. Sean Lim, Associate Professor and Honorary Consultant in Haematological Oncology at the University of Southampton, who led the research. "In particular, individuals with hematological malignancies are at greater risk of severe COVID-19 disease even if they have been vaccinated," she continued.
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New pathway for DNA transfer discovered in tumor microenvironment
https://phys.org/news/2022-03-pathway-d ... nment.html
by University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame researchers have discovered another way tumor cells transfer genetic material to other cells in their microenvironment, causing cancer to spread.

In their latest study, published in Cell Reports, Crislyn D'Souza-Schorey, the Morris Pollard Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, and collaborators discovered that DNA "cargo" is transported in small informational sacs called extracellular microvesicles. Their study is a continuation of work her lab has undertaken to further understand the sharing of information between cells.

"We've shown that DNA present in these microvesicles is related to metastasis, so now we have a great platform to assess for genetic aberrations," said D'Souza-Schorey, who is also affiliated with the Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health, the Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases and the Harper Cancer Research Institute.

Cancer cells, unlike normal cells, are often filled with cytosolic DNA, which is DNA found in the jelly-like fluid outside of the cell's nucleus. This DNA can be derived from multiple sources, but recent evidence suggests that chromosomal instability is a primary source of cytosolic DNA in tumor cells.

The research team used a cell model from a male cancer patient to show how Y-chromosomal DNA—present in the cytosol due to chromosomal instability—is carried by extracellular vesicles and transferred to a female mammary epithelial cell line.
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Researchers shorten manufacturing time for CAR T cell therapy
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-03- ... erapy.html
by Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
A new approach from Penn Medicine researchers could cut the time it takes to alter patients' immune cells for infusion back into the body to find and attack cancer. The cell manufacturing process for this type of immunotherapy that was pioneered at Penn—CAR T cell therapy—typically takes 9 to 14 days. In a pre-clinical study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, a team in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania abbreviated this process and generated functional CAR T cells with enhanced anti-tumor potency in just 24 hours.

These results demonstrate the potential for a vast reduction in the time, materials, and labor required to generate CAR T cells, which could be especially beneficial in patients with rapidly progressive disease and in resource-poor healthcare environments. The study was led by Center for Cellular Immunotherapies researchers Michael C. Milone, MD, Ph.D., an associate professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Saba Ghassemi, Ph.D., a research assistant professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
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Biologists discover signaling pathways potentially associated with pancreatic cancer
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04- ... ancer.html
by Aran Sullivan , Vanderbilt University
Kathleen DelGiorno, assistant professor of cell and developmental biology, her lab and collaborators at the Salk Institute have discovered some of the specific signaling molecules involved in tumor progression in pancreatic cancer. These molecules, called eicosanoids, play a role in inflammation and are known to have a role in cancer. According to DelGiorno, that role had not been completely evaluated in pancreatic tumors—until now.

DelGiorno and her colleagues, including Vikas Gubbala, the paper's first author and lab technician at the Salk Institute, used advanced basic science technologies, including mass spectrometry—technology to measure the weight and charge of molecules—RNA sequencing and tissue study techniques called histopathology. The combination of these techniques helped them identify which eicosanoids are relevant to disease progression in pancreatic cancer and which cell types produce these signals. Collectively, these data provide a road map for what pathways to target and may help identify new diagnostic strategies.

In cancers with a low five-year survival rate like pancreatic cancer, discovering early signs of tumor formation and progression can be critical in developing new therapies to treat them.

Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. and is on its way to becoming the second, DelGiorno said. "This is largely due to how late we are currently able to diagnose pancreatic cancers, as well as the unique microenvironment with pancreatic tumors that lead to treatment resistance."
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Armed CAR-T cells to better fight cancer
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04- ... ancer.html
by Uppsala University
Immunotherapy is increasingly becoming a successful way to treat cancer. Researchers at Uppsala University have now developed armed CAR-T cells that reinforce the immune defense against cancer and that could increase the possibilities to successfully treat solid tumors. The study has been published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.

The use of immunotherapy to treat cancer is increasing and genetically modified immune cells called CAR-T cells are efficacious for treating blood cancer. Unfortunately, their efficiency is impaired in solid tumors due to local immune suppression in the tumor.

To avoid this problem, the Uppsala researchers have armed CAR-T cells by introducing a gene that encodes the immune stimulatory protein NAP (neutrophil-activating protein) from the bacteria Helicobacter pylori. When NAP is released from the CAR-T cells this creates a proinflammatory environment which directly combats the immunosuppressive microenvironment in solid tumors and strengthens the function of the CAR-T cells.
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Researchers discover novel way to inhibit key cancer driver, other mutated genes
https://phys.org/news/2022-04-inhibit-k ... tated.html
by Lisa Marshall, University of Colorado at Boulder

CU Boulder researchers have discovered a new way to inhibit the most commonly mutated gene underlying human tumor growth, opening the door to new therapeutic strategies for cancer and a host of other diseases.

The discovery, published April 5 in the journal Cell Reports, marks an important step forward in the decades-long quest to target transcription factors (TFs), a notoriously hard-to-block class of proteins which, when mutated or dysregulated, can disrupt cell function and drive illness.

"This class of proteins represents one of the most high-impact therapeutic targets in biomedicine," said senior author and biochemistry Professor Dylan Taatjes. "We provide a completely new strategy for blocking transcription factor function that could have broad applications to many diseases, including and beyond cancer."
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caltrek
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Innovative Therapy that “Tricks” and Destroys Cancer Cells Advances to Clinical Trial
April 8, 2022

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/949313

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) Milwaukee, April 8, 2022 – A novel therapy studied at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) Cancer Center has led to a clinical trial for the treatment of glioblastoma, a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer, yet the most common primary brain tumor in adults.

Despite decades of research globally, only incremental gains have been made to extend or enhance quality of life for patients with glioblastoma. Treatment options are limited and typically include a combination of surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. Now, a new clinical study open at Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin will evaluate an alternative treatment that is administered orally.

The treatment evolved from years of research led by Christopher Chitambar, MD, and his lab to study iron-dependent processes in cancer biology and the mechanisms by which gallium compounds target iron metabolism and block malignant cell growth. In preclinical studies, Drs. Chitambar and Kathleen Schmainda, PhD, discovered that when administered intravenously, gallium maltolate (GaM) significantly slowed the growth of glioblastoma in a rat brain tumor model. Additional studies showed that GaM, administered orally to glioblastoma-bearing rats, significantly reduced the size of their tumors and prolonged survival.

GaM, originally developed by Harvard and Stanford educated scientist Lawrence R. Bernstein, PhD, is an orally available form of the metal gallium, which, in the body, shares many chemical properties with the highly oxidized form of iron, Fe(III). Numerous studies examining the relationship between iron and cancer show that increased levels of iron in the body can be associated with increased cancer risk and severity, due to cancer cells’ dependence on iron to multiply and spread. Because of gallium’s similarity to Fe(III) (the form of iron cancer cells take up), cancer cells take up gallium instead of iron, preventing their multiplication, ultimately leading to their death.

“The discovery that GaM has anticancer activity against glioblastoma in pre-clinical studies is extremely exciting; it opens the door for developing it as a drug for treatment of glioblastoma in patients,” says Christopher Chitambar, MD, Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Biophysics, Division of Hematology and Oncology at MCW. “The anticancer mechanism of GaM applies to other solid tumors as well,” he adds.
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Cancer-fighting Viruses Soften Up Their Victims Before Attacking
April 11, 2022

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/949395

Introduction:
(University of Ottawa via EurekAlert) A research team based at the University of Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital has developed a virus that infects and kills cancer cells without harming normal cells, while also sending out signals to prepare nearby uninfected cancer cells for viral attack. Their new study, published in Nature Communications, shows that this novel strategy can shrink tumours and significantly prolong survival in several cancer models in mice.

The strategy relies on extracellular vesicles, tiny particles that pinch off from a cell and fuse with other cells. The research team created a virus that causes infected cells to produce extracellular vesicles filled with a specific RNA that blunts the antiviral defenses of nearby cancer cells. They found that this novel virus can work with other forms of immunotherapy, as well as with small-molecule drugs, to enhance cancer-killing even further.

“Cancer cells are constantly evolving new ways to evade our therapies, so we designed this therapy to target cancer on multiple fronts at the same time,” said senior author Dr. Carolina Ilkow, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Senior Scientist at The Ottawa Hospital. “We believe these observations are transformative for the fields of oncolytic viruses, miRNA therapeutics and exosome-based therapies.”

The researchers note that while many groups are investigating therapies based on RNA and extracellular vesicles, these therapies are much more difficult to manufacture and store than viral therapies. This new viral technology could have a broad impact, as it provides an easy and targeted way to “manufacture” and deliver RNA therapeutics and extracellular vesicles right inside the patient, rather than in a lab.

This research used a Maraba virus that has been tested in human clinical trials as a cancer therapy, but the strategy could be applied to other viruses as well. The researchers used several different models of pancreatic cancer (mouse and human) as well as models of ovarian, breast, kidney and skin cancer.
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Rural Georgia Counties Pinpointed as Hotspots for Death from Four Common Cancers
April 11, 2022

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/949382

Introduction:
(Media College of Georgia via EurekAlert) AUGUSTA, Ga. (April 11, 2022) – Georgia counties with the highest mortality rates from four common cancers tended to be more rural, have higher poverty rates, have a higher percentage of Black residents and/or older individuals, according to researchers at the state’s public medical school and Georgia Cancer Center.

Georgia’s hotspots for death from breast, prostate, colorectal and lung cancer over a 20-year period from 1999 to 2019 were concentrated in the eastern Piedmont to the southern-most Coastal Plain regions, as well as the southwestern rural and northern-most rural areas, says Dr. Justin Xavier Moore, epidemiologist at the Medical College of Georgia and Georgia Cancer Center.

“We observed distinct geographic and racial/ethnic disparities in mortality from breast, colorectal, lung and prostate cancer,” Moore and his colleagues write about Georgia’s hotspots for some of the leading causes of cancer death.

“Now that we understand these are hotspot areas, we need to understand what is really driving that,” Moore says.

He is presenting the findings at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in New Orleans April 8-13. Moore also is being honored at the meeting by the association with a Minority and Minority-Serving Institution Faculty Scholar in Cancer Research Award for his work.
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