Cancer News and Discussions

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Long-term study supports link between inflammation and cognitive problems in older breast cancer survivors
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-09- ... blems.html
by University of California, Los Angeles

Scientists are still trying to understand why many breast cancer survivors experience troubling cognitive problems for years after treatment. Inflammation is one possible culprit. A new long-term study of older breast cancer survivors published today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and co-led by UCLA researchers adds important evidence to that potential link.

Higher levels of an inflammatory marker known as C-reactive protein (CRP) were related to older breast cancer survivors reporting cognitive problems in the new study.

"Blood tests for CRP are used routinely in the clinic to determine risk of heart disease. Our study suggests this common test for inflammation might also be an indicator of risk for cognitive problems reported by breast cancer survivors," said study lead author Judith Carroll, an associate professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences and faculty member of the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA. 
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Biological pathways provide evidence for how to overcome barriers limiting cancer immunotherapies

by UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-10- ... iting.html
Researchers at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have found a possible way to overcome barriers that block effective anti-cancer immune responses, thereby opening the potential for more effective immunotherapies in people.

The findings are published in Nature.

An unfavorable immune environment immediately surrounding a tumor cell is a major obstacle in using immunotherapy to treat many solid tumors, especially pancreatic and breast cancer, as the suppressive environment can block immune responses that could be helpful in attacking a tumor. One protein, the STimulator of INterferon Genes (STING), has the promise of powerfully provoking multiple parts of the immune system and breaking established barriers.

"Although activating the immune system to control malignant tumors has revolutionized cancer treatment, a sizable portion of patients do not respond to immunotherapy treatments. However, new drugs that target STING have been a high priority for pharmaceutical development yet clinical trials have revealed significant tumor resistance to STING-directed drugs," said UNC Lineberger's Jenny PY Ting, Ph.D., the William R. Kenan Professor of Genetics and professor of microbiology and immunology at the UNC School of Medicine.

"Clinically, to improve the effectiveness of STING-targeted drugs, we need to more deeply understand how these drugs influence different immune cells in the tumor because the beneficial effects of STING on immunity may be outweighed by its unintended immune-suppressive effect," said Ting, the paper's co-corresponding author and director of the Center for Translational Immunology at UNC.
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Novel, non-invasive method to predict and reduce the relapse of childhood cancers
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-10- ... ncers.html
by National University of Singapore
A team of scientists and doctors from the KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine) and the Institute for Health Innovation and Technology has discovered a novel, noninvasive method to predict and reduce the relapse of childhood cancers.

The most common form of solid tumor affecting children is neuroblastoma. It is known to be the cause of a disproportionate number of childhood cancer deaths. The majority of relapsed patients would have a very low chance of survival despite being given the best care.

"The bone marrow is the site where majority of neuroblastoma relapses occur. This discovery provides a simplified method of assessing cancer spread. The current method of sampling bone marrow can be complex, painful and costly. This is particularly daunting for young patients and their families," explained Dr. Amos Loh, Senior Consultant at the Department of Pediatric Surgery, Deputy Chair of the Division of Surgery, and Chair of the Pediatric Brain and Solid Tumor Program, KK Women's and Children's Hospital.

"Where current methods may show patients as cancer-free at the end of treatment, our novel approach may detect 'leftover' disease not identified by current means. This could one day save patients' lives through appropriate early interventions to prevent relapse," added Dr. Loh.
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Substance with anti-tumor properties found in the extract of a fungus
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-substance ... ungus.html
by Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology
Skoltech researchers and their colleagues from the Pushchino Scientific Center for Biological Research of RAS and Lomonosov Moscow State University discovered a never-before-seen substance with anti-tumor properties in the extract of the fungus Aspergillus cavernicola. The study was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Cis-cavernamine, a pigment present in the A. cavernicola extract, was found to turn into another compound that the researchers dubbed monasnicotinic acid (MNA). They used human prostate and bladder cancer cells to check whether MNA has anti-tumor activity and discovered that it hinders the growth and migration of cancer cells by blocking the AKT/mTOR signaling pathways.

"MNA's anti-tumor effect is promising, although not strong enough yet. We plan to enhance this capability by tweaking the molecule's structure and have already applied for an RSF grant to continue this research. While modified versions of MNA stand a good chance of evolving into effective cancer drugs, cis-cavernamine can be used by the food industry right away," said Tatiana Antipova, lead author and senior research scientist at the Skryabin Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms of RAS in Pushchino.
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Newly discovered process brings immune cells up to speed
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-newly-immune-cells.html
by University of Bonn
Cancer cells use an unusual mechanism to migrate into new tissue and form metastases there. The same process probably also keeps some immune cells on their toes. This is the result of a recent study led by the University of Bonn.

According to the study, certain structures, the centrioles, increase in number. This makes it easier for them to maintain their direction and thus migrate more quickly to the lymph nodes, where they activate other immune cells. The results have now been published in the Journal of Cell Biology.

Like the police, the immune system relies on division of labor. First of all, there are the dendritic cells. They search the tissue around the clock for traces of suspicious intruders, called antigens. If they are successful, they rush to the lymphatic vessels and from there to the draining lymph nodes. There they present their findings to a powerful search team, the T cells. These endogenous troops now know which enemy to fight.

This attack must take place before the invaders cause major damage or multiply too much. It is therefore important that dendritic cells migrate as quickly as possible to the briefing in the lymph node. "We have discovered a mechanism that helps them doing this," explains Prof. Dr. Eva Kiermaier from the LIMES Institute (Life and Medical Sciences) at the University of Bonn. "To do so, they form more of certain structures called centrosomes. These help them maintain their direction for longer and thus reach the lymphatic vessels more quickly."
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Research confirms unique danger of postpartum breast cancers
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-10- ... ncers.html
by Joe Rojas-Burke, Oregon Health & Science University
Breast cancers that emerge within five years of giving birth are more likely to spread and become deadly. Additionally, a new study shows that recent childbirth alone is an independent risk factor for breast cancer progression.

The findings suggest that current clinical guidelines, which don't factor in postpartum status, are less able to accurately predict the risk of cancer recurrence and guide optimal treatment strategies in young patients.

"This has profound implications for prognosis," said senior author Pepper Schedin, Ph.D., professor of cell, developmental and cancer biology in the OHSU School of Medicine and OHSU Knight Cancer Institute. "A postpartum diagnosis can move women who appear to have good prognosis into a high-risk category."

A paper describing the research published today in JAMA Network Open. OHSU Knight Cancer Institute scientists Zhenzhen Zhang, Ph.D., M.P.H., and Solange Bassale, M.S., are co-first authors.

The researchers were able to confirm the link between pregnancy and breast cancer outcomes using the extensive Utah Population Database, in collaboration with Ken Smith, Ph.D., co-senior author of the paper and a distinguished professor of family studies and population science at the University of Utah's Huntsman Cancer Institute. The database combines statewide birth and death records, Utah Cancer Registry data, and patient records from statewide inpatient and ambulatory records.
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Study identifies new gene that drives colon cancer
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-10- ... ancer.html
by The Mount Sinai Hospital
Researchers at Mount Sinai's Tisch Cancer Institute have identified a new gene that is essential to colon cancer growth and found that inflammation in the external environment around the tumor can contribute to the growth of tumor cells. The scientists reported these findings in Nature Communications.

This is the first time that scientists have discovered that the environment around a colon cancer tumor can program what is known as a "super enhancer," a complex area of DNA with a high concentration of transcriptional machinery that controls whether a cell is malignant.

This super enhancer—the largest 1-2% of all enhancers in the cell—regulates the gene PDZK1IP1, which was previously not identified as a cancer gene. Once researchers deleted PDZK1IP1, colon cancer growth slowed down, suggesting that PDZK1IP1 and its super enhancer could be targets for anti-cancer therapies.

"In the United States, colon cancer is the third most prevalent and second most deadly cancer," said the study's first author Royce Zhou, an MD/Ph.D. student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "This cancer is reliant on surgery for treatment, and immunotherapies that have revolutionized the treatment of advanced cancer have only worked for a small subset of colon cancer patients. That's why there's a great need for novel target identification."
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Two drugs reverse a key pancreatic cancer step in the lab
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-10- ... ancer.html
by University of Florida
Pancreatic cancer often lurks as a silent disease. With no known symptoms, it can progress undetected and spread to other organs.

According to the National Cancer Institute, more than 60,000 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year, and only about 1 in 10 of those diagnosed will survive the next five years. The disease ranks as the third leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. because it is rarely detected in the early stages when treatment options are most effective.

Pancreatic cancer's stealth-like nature has the attention of University of Florida scientists, who have discovered a way to reverse a key cellular process involved in its progression. Their study, "Pharmacological Inhibition and Reversal of Pancreatic Acinar Ductal Metaplasia," was published in the journal Cell Death Discovery.

The UF researchers identified two small molecules that inhibit precancerous cell progression. The molecules also reversed a process known as acinar ductal metaplasia, or ADM, which precedes pancreatic cancer.
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Researchers develop strategy to non-invasively monitor key immune cells in tumors

by Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-10- ... cells.html
A Ludwig Cancer Research study has developed a strategy to non-invasively track immune cells known as macrophages within brain and breast tumors in living mice. Cancers often recruit and reprogram these tumor-associated macrophages, or TAMs, to support their own growth and confer resistance to therapies. Led by Ludwig Lausanne's Johanna Joyce and Davide Croci and their colleague at the Lausanne University Hospital, Ruud B. van Heeswijk, the study appears in the current issue of Science Translational Medicine and is featured on the cover of the journal.

"Macrophage monitoring has the potential to significantly improve the therapeutic management of a variety of cancers," said Joyce. "Brain malignancies, among the deadliest primary cancers and metastases, especially depend on the presence of macrophages and the targeting of these immune cells may represent a key strategy for their treatment."
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Corrupt endothelial cells found to protect blood cancer cells from chemotherapy
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-10- ... ancer.html
by Weill Cornell Medical College
Endothelial cells—the cells that line blood vessels—grown alongside leukemia cells become corrupted and rescue the cancer cells from many chemotherapy drugs, a study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators found.

A growing body of evidence suggests that genetic mutations are not enough to cause cancer; tumor cells also need the right environment to grow. The new study, published in Blood on Aug. 18, found that endothelial cells can protect T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cells, which cause an aggressive type of blood cancer, from chemotherapy drugs that would otherwise kill the cancer cells. The discovery and the platform they used could improve the way scientists find and test new drugs for the condition.

"We have identified endothelial cells as a new player in T-ALL," said co-senior author Dr. Giorgio Inghirami, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and a member of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine. "Our platform may lead to more effective drug discovery programs and better clinical trials."
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