Cancer
Lung Cancer Conference Leaders Honor Paul A. Bunn Jr., M.D.
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The American Association for Cancer Research and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) honored Paul A. Bunn Jr., M.D., for his leadership in lung cancer research at the first Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer conference this week. The conference, held from Jan. 11-14, 2010, drew more than 300 people from around the world. Bunn is professor of medicine and the James Dudley chair in cancer research at the University of Colorado, Denver.
“Dr. Bunn has been an inspiration to physicians and scientists working in the field of lung cancer. He deserves this award for everything that he has contributed to this important field past, present and future,” said conference co-chairperson Roy Herbst, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the section of thoracic medical oncology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Conference co-chairperson David Carbone, M.D., Ph.D., Harold L. Moses chair in cancer research and director of the Specialized Program of Research Excellence in Lung Cancer at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, concurred.
New target discovered for treatment of cancer
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Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered a new way of blocking the formation of blood vessels and halting the growth of tumours in mice. A substance that exploits this mechanism could be developed into a new treatment for cancer.
For a cancer tumour to be able to grow larger than the size of a pea, the cancer cells need to stimulate the formation of new blood vessels that can supply the tumour with oxygen and nutrients, a process known as angiogenesis. A number of medicines which inhibit angiogenesis have been developed, but their effect has been limited, and there is still a major need for better medicines.
The new results concern a receptor on the surface of blood vessel cells called ALK1. When the researchers blocked ALK1 in tumours in mice, angiogenesis was inhibited and the tumours stopped growing. The ALK1 receptor is activated by a family of signalling proteins called TGF-² proteins that are very important for communication between different types of cell in a wide range of key processes in the body. The study indicates that two members of the TGF-β family (TGF-β and BMP9) work together to stimulate angiogenesis in tumours.
Scientists find new leukemia gene risk factors
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Researchers have found four new genetic variants that increase the risk of contracting one of the major forms of leukemia, confirming that risk factors for the fatal blood cancer can be inherited.
The findings mean scientists now know of 10 genetic variants associated with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), scientists at Europe’s Institute of Cancer Research who conducted the study said.
The four new genetic factors are all common in European populations and each factor contributes to an increase in the risk of the disease.
Zebrafish journal publishes cancer biology special issue
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The zebrafish, a translucent fish often used as a model of human development and disease, offers unique advantages for studying the cause, growth, and spread of tumors using strategies and methods presented in the current “Cancer Biology” special issue of Zebrafish, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (http://www.liebertpub.com). The entire issue is available free online at http://www.liebertpub.com/zeb
Guest Editors Steven D. Leach, MD, the Paul K. Neumann Professor in Pancreatic Cancer and Professor of Surgery, Oncology and Cell Biology at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD) and A. Thomas Look, MD, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, and Vice-Chair for Research Pediatric Oncology, Dana Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, MA), have compiled a comprehensive collection of papers that describe current approaches for modeling human cancer in zebrafish, studying tissue remodeling in zebrafish embryos, and understanding the genes, genetic control elements, and repair pathways involved in the development and metastasis of tumors.
A particular advantage of using zebrafish to study cancer biology is the ability to transplant human tumors into the fish using well-established methods. Authors Leonard Zon, PhD, and Alison Taylor, PhD, from Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston present the concepts and techniques relevant to zebrafish transplantation assays. They describe how tumor transplantation has been used to study leukemia, rhabdomyosarcoma, and melanoma in the paper “Zebrafish Tumor Assays: The State of Transplantation.”
Plasticizer may be tied to boys’ breast enlargement
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A report out today points to yet another possible harmful effect of exposure to phthalates—a controversial plastics chemical used widely in the manufacture of consumer products.
Researchers from Turkey found higher blood levels of the most commonly used plasticizer, DEHP, in a group of boys with abnormal enlargement of the breasts—a common condition seen in up to 65 percent of adolescent boys called pubertal gynecomastia. The condition usually resolves on its own after boys get through puberty.
“Unfortunately,” Dr. Elif N. Ozmert from Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey noted in an email to Reuters Health, “we are exposed to this (chemical) in many ways via direct contact,” breathing, and eating.
Osteoporosis meds may cut breast cancer risk
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Women who took a commonly used class of osteoporosis drugs called bisphosphonates had significantly fewer invasive breast cancers than women not using the bone-strengthening pills, according to a new analysis of data from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI).
The analysis from a segment of the more than 150,000 generally healthy post-menopausal women in the WHI study found that those taking Merck & Co’s Fosamax, or other bisphosphonates, had 32 percent fewer cases of invasive breast cancer than women who did not use the osteoporosis medicines, researchers found.
Fosamax is now available in generic form as alendronate. Other commonly used medicines from the class include Roche’s Boniva and Actonel, which is sold by Procter & Gamble Co.
Child cancer survivors have higher heart risk
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Children and young people who survive cancer have a significantly higher risk of developing heart disease as young adults because of the cancer treatment they received, researchers said Wednesday.
A study by doctors from the United States found that young adult survivors of childhood cancer are at risk of a range of cardiac problems such as heart failure, heart attacks, or heart disease and the risks continued up to 30 years after treatment.
“Young adults who survive childhood or adolescent cancer are clearly at risk for early cardiac morbidity and mortality not typically recognized within this age group,” said Daniel Mulrooney from the University of Minnesota, who led the study.
The utility of EUS and CEH-EUS in the diagnosis of small pancreatic tumors
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Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) is a highly sensitive diagnostic method for the detection of small pancreatic carcinomas. Recently, there have been some reports describing the utility of contrast-enhanced harmonic EUS (CEH-EUS) which uses sonographic contrast agent for differentiation of a pancreatic mass.
A research team from Japan reported a case of small adenocarcinoma of the pancreas distinct from branch duct intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) in which investigation by EUS took place every 6 mo and diagnosis was made accurately by additional CEH-EUS during the follow-up of the branch duct IPMN.
Their study will be published on November 21, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.
Their results suggest that the performance of periodical EUS with CEH-EUS imaging during the follow-up of branch duct IPMN allowed the establishment of an accurate diagnosis of the disease.
A new mouse could help understand how some lung cancer cells evade drug treatment
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Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide and lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type. Many cases of lung adenocarcinoma are attributed to a mutation in a gene for the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). Lung cancer with changes in EGFR is initially treatable with a family of chemotherapeutic agents called tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), such as gefitinib and erlotinib. However, patients often develop resistance to these drugs through the acquisition of additional changes or secondary mutations that allow cancer cells to evade treatment.
Some secondary mutations to the EGFR gene that allow lung cancer cells to survive in the presence of current chemotherapy are known. These secondary changes are now the focus of targeted efforts to create drugs to specifically interfere with the mutated form of the protein. Unfortunately, in 40% of the cases in which patients become resistant to therapy, the molecular events that confer this resistance are not known. Without knowing the changes that sustain the survival of these cells it remains impossible to specifically and effectively target them with anti-cancer drugs.
Scientists now describe a mouse model of lung cancer that develops resistance to TKI drugs in at least some of the same ways that humans do. Lung cancer occurs in these mice due to a mutation in EGFR that is the same as the mutation that underlies many human lung adenocarcinomas. Some of the defined secondary changes to EGFR, which are known to confer drug resistance in humans, also occur in these mice. But most of these drug resistant mice bear tumors that do not contain known mutations. This important similarity to the human situation suggests that this mouse model might help identify the currently unknown mutations that make lung cancer cells resistant to therapy.
Spices Halt Growth of Breast Stem Cells
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A new study finds that compounds derived from the spices turmeric and pepper could help prevent breast cancer by limiting the growth of stem cells, the small number of cells that fuel a tumor’s growth.
Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that when the dietary compounds curcumin, which is derived from the Indian spice turmeric, and piperine, derived from black peppers, were applied to breast cells in culture, they decreased the number of stem cells while having no effect on normal differentiated cells.
“If we can limit the number of stem cells, we can limit the number of cells with potential to form tumors,” says lead author Madhuri Kakarala, M.D., Ph.D., R.D., clinical lecturer in internal medicine at the U-M Medical School and a research investigator at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System.
Tiny RNA has big impact on lung cancer tumors
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Researchers from Yale University and Mirna Therapeutics, Inc., reversed the growth of lung tumors in mice using a naturally occurring tumor suppressor microRNA. The study reveals that a tiny bit of RNA may one day play a big role in cancer treatment, and provides hope for future patients battling one of the most prevalent and difficult to treat cancers.
“This is the first time anybody has shown a positive effect of microRNAs in shrinking lung cancer,” said Frank Slack, Ph.D., co-senior author of the paper, researcher at the Yale Cancer Center and professor of molecular, cellular & developmental biology.
The tumors in mice with non-small cell lung cancer shrank after the Yale team delivered an intranasal dose containing a type of micro-RNA called let-7, the authors reported in the Dec. 7 issue of the journal Oncogene. MicroRNAs are small bits of genetic material most often associated with transmission of information encoded in DNA. However in the past decade microRNAs have been shown to play crucial roles in gene regulation and/or gene silencing
“Cancer of fraud” permeates U.S. healthcare system
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It’s a crime so profitable that even dead people are in on the act.
A U.S. Senate committee revealed last year that public health insurer Medicare had paid as much as $92 million from 2000 to 2007 for medical services or equipment ordered or prescribed by doctors who were dead at the time.
Many had died more than five years before the date when they supposedly ordered or authorized the service.
Healthcare fraud said to cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars a year has garnered increased attention amid the congressional debate about overhauling the U.S. healthcare system—especially since President Barack Obama wants to cover some of the cost of reforms by fighting abuse.
Men more apt than women to leave partner with cancer
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Women are six times more likely to end up separated or divorced if they are diagnosed with cancer or multiple sclerosis than if their male partners were facing the same illness, according to a U.S. study.
The study confirmed earlier research of a divorce or separation rate among cancer patients of 11.6 percent, similar to the general population, but found the rate jumped to 20.8 percent when the woman was sick versus 2.9 percent when the man was ill.
“Female gender was the strongest predictor of separation or divorce in each of the patient groups we studied,” said Marc Chamberlain, director of the neuro-oncology program at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA).
Routine evaluation of prostate size not as effective in cancer screening, Mayo study finds
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New Mayo Clinic research studied the association between prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels and prostate size and found that routine annual evaluation of prostate growth is not necessarily a predictor for the development of prostate cancer. However the study suggests that if a man’s PSA level is rising quickly, a prostate biopsy is reasonable to determine if he has prostate cancer. These findings are being presented this week at the North Central Section of the American Urological Association (http://www.ncsaua.org/) in Scottsdale, Ariz.
VIDEO ALERT: Additional audio and video resources are available on the Mayo Clinic News Blog (http://newsblog.mayoclinic.org/2009/11/09/routine-prostate-size-evaluation-not-as-effective-in-cancer-screening/).
These Mayo Clinic study findings were based on data in the Olmsted County Study of Urinary Health Status among Men, a large cohort study of men living in Olmsted County, Minn. Researchers randomly selected 616 men between the ages of 40 and 79 who did not have prostate disease. Patients participated in examinations every two years for 17 years, which included PSA and prostate volume measurements using ultrasound, to determine changes in prostate disease.
Pain often persists years after breast surgery
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In a study of Danish women who had surgery for breast cancer, nearly half still reported pain 2 to 3 years later, according to a report in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
“Our study supports previous smaller studies that chronic pain after breast cancer surgery and treatment is common and needs to receive more focus in the future,” senior investigator Dr. Henrik Kehlet from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, told Reuters Health.
The findings stem from 3253 women who had surgery for breast cancer between 2005 and 2006 and who responded to a survey in 2009.
