A cancer gene known as astrocyte elevated gene-1 (AEG-1) has been identified as a major contributor to chemotherapy resistance, according to researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University. The findings suggest that future treatment methods focused on switching off the expression of this gene may improve treatment success of chemotherapy regimens. Cancer researchers have long viewed AEG-1 [...]
Lung cancer patients who developed a rash following treatment with cetuximab (Erbitux) lived longer than those who displayed no such side effects, according to researchers at Hospital Grosshandsdorf in Germany. While drug side effects are generally seen as a negative outcome of treatment, it would appear that individuals taking Erbitux might come to view skin [...]
Studies completed in 2008 suggested for the first time that cancer tumors might contain cancer stem cells. Stem cells are basic cell structures that have the ability to grow into a diverse variety of cell types. As such, cancer stem cells are the initial cancer cells that grow and divide to proliferate the illness. Today, [...]
A light used to grow plants on the Space Shuttle and in other NASA experiments may now be useful for earth-bound cancer patients. Treatments with a light system called a High Emissivity Aluminiferous Luminescent Substrate (HEALS) have been shown to be effective in helping cancer patients deal with a painful and difficult side effect of [...]
A specific genetic signature has been linked to a high risk for recurrence of non-small cell lung caner following surgery, according to a team of researchers led by pathologist Dr. Ming Tsao. The discovery provides an avenue for identifying high-risk patients who may benefit from chemotherapy treatments once surgical removal of the tumor has occurred. [...]
Scientists at the University of East Anglia in England have reportedly discovered a “rogue gene” that can lead to the spread of cancer throughout the body. The gene, labeled WWP2, attacks proteins in healthy cells that typically prevent the spread of cancer from one area of the body to another. The researchers found that the [...]
Scientists at the Rogosin Institute in New York have found a new weapon in the fight against cancer: beads made from mouse cancer cells. Researchers created the beads by removing cancer cells from mice and coating them in agarose, a sugar derived from seaweed. In previous tests on animals, the study found that the beads [...]
A new platinum-based compound that is activated by blue light offers a cancer-killing potency that is up to 80 times higher than that of current platinum-based anti-cancer drugs, according to research led by the University of Warwick. Working in conjunction with researchers at Ninewells Hospital Dundee and the University of Edinburgh, the Warwick team hopes [...]
Each individual cancer cell displays a multitude of genetic mutations. Among the hundreds of these potentially hazardous mutations, scientists believe that the alteration of one to twelve could be enough to render a caner cell impotent and effectively shut it down within the body. The method currently being proposed to achieve this potentially landmark procedure [...]
Unique “instructor cells” recently identified by biologists at Tufts University have been shown to spur melanoma-like growth in pigment cells when membrane voltage is altered. According to researchers, this voltage change triggers a series of events that directly leads to the abnormal growth of melanocytes within stem cells. The new findings could eventually lead to [...]