Cancer News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

Potato chip breakthrough crunches cancer risk for healthier snack
By Bronwyn Thompson
February 23, 2024
https://newatlas.com/science/potato-chi ... ncer-risk/

In what many of us would consider a true public service to one of the world's best food groups, scientists have flicked the switch on a mechanism that causes cold-stored potatoes to produce the carcinogen acrylamide. Growing these genetically tinkered potatoes could eradicate known cancer risks associated with darkened chips, making them much healthier regardless of processing.

"This discovery represents a significant advancement in our understanding of potato development and its implications for food quality and health,” said Jiming Jiang, a Research Foundation Professor at Michigan State University (MSU). “It has the potential to affect every single bag of potato chips around the world.”

[weatheriscool]

Stubborn liver cancer may have met its match in century-old TB vaccine
By Paul McClure
February 22, 2024

A single injection of the 102-year-old tuberculosis vaccine, BCG, has proven effective at triggering an immune response in mice and shrank their liver cancer tumors, according to research by UC Davis Health. The findings suggest that BCG might be an alternative way of treating this notoriously hard-to-treat cancer.

As the most common type of liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Despite treatment options that include surgery, radio- and chemotherapy, immunotherapy and liver transplant, outcomes remain bleak.

In the search for an alternative treatment for HCC, researchers from UC Davis Health undertook a study to see whether the century-old Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, used to protect against tuberculosis, was an effective anti-cancer agent.

Studies have found that in addition to its specific effects against TB, BCG has non-specific protective effects, including immune system effects, with systemic implications. The US FDA has already approved it for the treatment of bladder cancer, and clinical trials have explored its use in fibromyalgia and diabetes. So, the researchers were keen to test its effect on this stubborn form of liver cancer.

https://newatlas.com/medical/liver-canc ... b-vaccine/

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

Research suggests natural compound could be promising new alternative treatment for colon cancer
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-02- ... colon.html
by University of Portsmouth

A new study has discovered a naturally occurring compound found in fruit has the potential to be an effective alternative treatment for colon cancer. The disease, which affects the large intestine, remains a significant global health concern, ranking as the third most common cancer worldwide.

With the alarming projection of 3.2 million new cases per year and 1.6 million deaths by 2040 by the World Health Organization, there is an urgent need for innovative and less toxic therapeutic approaches to treatment.

A team of international scientists from the Universities of Portsmouth and Hong Kong have found a polyphenol called Schisandrin B (Sch B) exhibits a remarkable anti-tumorigenic effect on colon cancer.

The compound is found in the fruit of Schisandra chinensis, also known as the magnolia or five-flavor berry, which is native to forests of Northern China, the Russian Far East, and Korea. Wild varieties are also found in Japan and it is often used in plant-based foods and drinks.

Existing research has shown Sch B has anti-cancer properties in liver, breast, ovarian, gastric, and gall bladder cancers. Until now, the mechanism underlying the anti-tumorigenic effect of Sch B in colon cancer has not been fully understood.

Senior author Dr. Murphy Wan from the University of Portsmouth's School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences said, "Conventional cancer therapies often have various side effects and organ toxicities, resulting in a lower quality of life for patients. "

[weatheriscool]

Gene-edited lymphocytes and the path toward 'off-the-shelf' therapy against cervical cancer
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03- ... erapy.html

by Juntendo University Research Promotion Center

Cervical cancer is among the most common malignancies affecting women worldwide. In 2020 alone, approximately 600,000 women were diagnosed with this disease, and over 314,000 died from it. In 99% of the cases, cervical cancer cells harbor human papillomavirus (HPV), and thus, HPV vaccines are an effective way to mitigate the risk of developing this disease. Unfortunately, such preventive measures are useless against established cancers, which are generally incurable once they become metastatic or relapsing.

Fortunately, scientists have made substantial progress in developing a promising therapeutic strategy for cervical cancer: rejuvenated cytotoxic T lymphocytes (rejTs). These lymphocytes can be engineered to target HPV-specific antigens that are expressed predominantly in cervical cancer cells, constituting a type of targeted immunotherapy. Ideally, rejTs would be produced from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) gathered from the patient themselves. However, this process is not clinically feasible in terms of both time and cost.

[weatheriscool]

Advance in taxol biosynthesis could lead to large-scale production of anticancer drug
https://phys.org/news/2024-03-advance-t ... scale.html
by Peking University

Paclitaxel is the world's best-selling plant-based anticancer drug and one of the most effective anticancer drugs over the past 30 years. It is widely used in the treatment of various types of cancer, including breast cancer, lung cancer, and ovarian cancer.

In the late 1990s and early 21st century, the annual sales of paclitaxel exceeded $1.5 billion and reached $2.0 billion in 2001, making it the best-selling drug in 2001. In 2019, the market for paclitaxel and its derivatives was approximately $15 billion, and it is expected to reach $20 billion by 2025.

As an anticancer drug, the molecular structure of paclitaxel is extremely complex, with highly oxidized, intricate bridged rings and 11 stereocenters, making it widely recognized as one of the most challenging natural products to synthesize chemically. Since the first total synthesis of paclitaxel was reported by the Holton and Nicolaou research groups in 1994, more than 40 research teams have been engaged in the total synthesis of paclitaxel.

[weatheriscool]

CERN's particle accelerator tech is turned on brain tumors
By David Szondy
March 07, 2024

Shifting from giant accelerators 26 km (16 miles) across to brain surgery theaters, a particle detector first developed by physicists at CERN is being used by scientists in Germany to treat brain tumors with greater precision and safety.

Destroying head and neck tumors is relatively simple. You dose them with the right chemicals or blast them with powerful enough radiation, and job done. The problem is figuring out how to kill the cancer cells without killing the patient.

One effective way of treating such tumors is by using ion beams. Accelerating charged particles to three quarters of the speed of light, they can penetrate as far as a foot into living tissue. To protect healthy cells, the conventional technique is to move the ion projector in a curve with the tumor centered at the focus. This way, the tumor is continually bombarded while the healthy tissue is only slightly exposed.

https://newatlas.com/science/particle-a ... ain-tumor/

[weatheriscool]

Zika virus vaccine emerges as an unlikely hero in battling brain cancer
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03- ... -hero.html
by Duke-NUS Medical School

Scientists from Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS) have developed a new approach using the Zika virus to destroy brain cancer cells and inhibit tumor growth, while sparing healthy cells. Using Zika virus vaccine candidates developed at Duke-NUS, the team discovered how these strains target rapidly proliferating cells over mature cells—making them an ideal option to target fast-growing cancerous cells in the adult brain.

Their findings, published in the Journal of Translational Medicine, potentially offer a new treatment alternative for brain cancer patients who currently have a poor prognosis.

Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common malignant brain cancer, with more than 300,000 patients diagnosed annually worldwide. Survival rates for such patients are poor (around 15 months), mainly due to high incidence of tumor recurrence and limited treatment options. For such patients, oncolytic virotherapy—or the use of engineered viruses to infect and kill cancer cells—may address the current therapeutic challenges.

[Time_Traveller]

Radiation resistant worms in Chernobyl could be key for cancer research

Friday 8 March 2024, 10:05pm

Worms living near the nuclear disaster zone in Chernobyl have "exceptional" resistance to radiation, potentially providing some valuable insights into cancer in humans.

While the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine sparked a mass evacuation of the area, many plants and animals have continued to survive in the region.

A recent study found cancer-resistant wolves living in the Chernobyl exclusion zone (CEZ), and now researchers have identified microscopic worms with the same advantages.

Exposure to chronic radiation has failed to damage the genomes of worms living in the area today, researchers from New York University found.

In recent years, researchers have found that some animals living in the exclusion zone — within an 18.6-mile radius of the power plant — are physically and genetically different from their counterparts elsewhere.

https://www.itv.com/news/2024-03-08/rad ... r-research

[weatheriscool]

New AI-based, non-invasive diagnostic tool enables accurate brain tumor diagnosis, surpassing current methods
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03- ... -tool.html
by Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology

Jointly developed by investigators of the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology's (VHIO) Radiomics Group and the Bellvitge University Hospital's Neuroradiology Unit, the Diagnosis in Susceptibility Contrast Enhancing Regions for Neuroncology (DISCERN) is an open-access deep learning tool based on the training of patterns using artificial intelligence models from information of standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine, results of the VHIO-led study demonstrate the feasibility and accuracy of DISCERN as an enabler of accurate brain tumor diagnosis from perfusion MRI, outperforming conventional methods.