Posts tagged "cancer"

• Scientists discover marker to identify, attack breast cancer stem cells →

  Breast cancer stem cells wear a cell surface protein that is part nametag and part bull’s eye, identifying them as potent tumor-generating cells and flagging their vulnerability to a drug, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report online in Journal of Clinical Investigation.

  “We’ve discovered the first single marker for breast cancer stem cells and also found that it’s targetable with a small molecule drug that inhibits an enzyme crucial to its synthesis,” said co-senior author Michael Andreeff, M.D., Ph.D., professor in MD Anderson’s Departments of Leukemia and Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy.

  Andreeff and colleagues are refining the drug as a potential targeted therapy for breast cancer stem cells, which are thought to be crucial to therapy resistance, disease progression and spread to other organs.

  cancer medical research discoveries future
  1 week ago reblog like 12 notes
• Screening for breast cancer without X-rays: Lasers and sound merge in promising diagnostic technique →

  

  X-ray mammography is an important diagnostic tool in the fight against breast cancer, but it has certain drawbacks that limit its effectiveness. For example, it can give in false positive and negative results; it also exposes women to low doses of ionizing radiation, which – while accepted as safe – still carry some risk.

  In the first phase of clinical testing of a new imaging device, researchers from Netherlands’ University of Twente and Medisch Spectrum Twente Hospital in Oldenzaal used photoacoustics – light-induced sound – rather than ionizing radiation to detect and visualize breast tumors. The team’s preliminary results, which were conducted on 12 patients with diagnosed malignancies and reported today in the Optical Society’s (OSA (http://www.osa.org)) open-access journal Optics Express (http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe), provide proof-of-concept support that the technology can distinguish malignant tissue by providing high-contrast images of tumors.

  xray lasers future research medical cancer
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• Beehive remedy may slow prostate cancer →

  

  An over-the-counter remedy derived from honeybee hives stalls the growth of prostate cancer cells in mice.

  bees cancer treatments discoveries research future
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• 'Brake gene' turned off in pancreatic cancer →

  

  Aggressive pancreatic tumours may be treatable with a new class of drugs, according to Cancer Research UK

  cancer treatment discoveries future medical research
  3 weeks ago reblog like 2 notes
• IBN Discovers Human Neural Stem Cells with Tumor Targeting Ability – A Promising Discovery for Breast Cancer Therapy →

  Could engineered human stem cells hold the key to cancer survival? Scientists at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), the world’s first bioengineering and nanotechnology research institute, have discovered that neural stem cells possess the innate ability to target tumor cells outside the central nervous system. This finding, which was demonstrated successfully on breast cancer cells, was recently published in leading peer reviewed journal, Stem Cells.

  bioengineering future cancer stem cells research discoveries
  1 month ago reblog like 7 notes
• Discovery Could Help Develop New Drugs to Treat Organ Transplant and Cancer Patients →

  Loyola researchers are reporting surprising findings about a molecule that helps ramp up the immune system in some cases and suppress it in others. The finding eventually could lead to new drugs to regulate the immune system by, for example, revving it up to attack tumor cells or tamping it down to prevent the rejection of transplanted organs.

  drugs cancer medical research transplantation organs future
  1 month ago reblog like 5 notes
• New Tiny 'Factories' Aim to Make Cancer-Killing Drugs →

  

  Cancer that has spread throughout a person’s body is tough to kill without causing too much collateral damage. But tiny “protein-factory” particles could target tumors specifically by manufacturing cancer-killing drugs anywhere within the human body.

  MIT researchers now have created such tiny particles that could someday make cancer-killing proteins on demand. Such nanoparticles — materials that range roughly in size from 1/1000 to 1/100000 the diameter of a human hair — contain a mixture of biological machinery needed to make proteins based on DNA sequences.

  cancer research medical nanotech future
  1 month ago reblog like 8 notes
• Gold nanostars first to deliver drug directly to cancer cell nucleus →

  Nanotechnology offers powerful new possibilities for targeted cancer therapies, but the design challenges are many. Northwestern University scientists now are the first to develop a simple but specialized nanoparticle that can deliver a drug directly to a cancer cell’s nucleus — an important feature for effective treatment.

  They also are the first to directly image at nanoscale dimensions how nanoparticles interact with a cancer cell’s nucleus.

  nanotech cancer cells future medical research
  1 month ago reblog like 7 notes
• The Cloud Will Cure Cancer →

  

  Much ink has been spilled on the huge leaps in communications, social networking, and commerce that have resulted from impressive gains in IT and processing power over the last 30 years. However, relatively little has been said about how computing power is about to impact our lives in the biggest way yet: Health. Two things are happening in parallel: technology to collect biological data is taking off and computing is becoming massively scalable. The combination of the two is about to revolutionize health care.

  cancer cloud big data future medical
  1 month ago reblog like 7 notes
• Applying Watson technology for personalized cancer care →

  

  Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and IBM have announced an agreement to collaborate on the development of a powerful tool built upon IBM Watson to provide medical professionals with improved access to current and comprehensive cancer data and practices.

  The resulting decision support tool will help doctors everywhere create individualized cancer diagnostic and treatment recommendations for their patients based on current evidence.

  Watson IBM research AI cancer medical future
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• ‘Bed-of-nails’ implant deters breast cancer →

  

  Researchers have developed a breast implant with nanoscale bumps that appear to halt the regrowth of breast cancer cells while attracting healthy ones.

  cancer future treatments research medical
  1 month ago reblog like 10 notes
• RNA interference cancer treatment? Delivering RNA with tiny sponge-like spheres →

  

  For the past decade, scientists have been pursuing cancer treatments based on RNA interference — a phenomenon that offers a way to shut off malfunctioning genes with short snippets of RNA. However, one huge challenge remains: finding a way to efficiently deliver the RNA.

  cancer RNA medical research drugs
  2 months ago reblog like 2 notes
• British scientists have produced a series of videos showing microscopic Cytotoxic ‘killer’ T cells destroying cancer cells in the human bloodstream. Their analysis of the T cell’s remarkably efficient, destructive qualities aims to eventually improve the body’s natural immunity against cancer and help overcome autoimmune diseases.

  video videos cancer medical research
  2 months ago reblog like 3 notes
• Nanoparticles may enhance cancer therapy →

  A mixture of current drugs and carbon nanoparticles shows potential to enhance treatment for head-and-neck cancers, especially when combined with radiation therapy, according to new research by Rice University and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

  The work blazes a path for further research into therapy customized to the needs of individual patients. The therapy uses carbon nanoparticles to encapsulate chemotherapeutic drugs and sequester them until they are delivered to the cancer cells they are meant to kill.

  A paper on the research was published this month in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano.

  nanotech future medical cancer
  3 months ago reblog like 0 notes
• Radiation treatment transforms breast cancer cells into cancer stem cells →

  

  Researchers with the UCLA Department of Radiation Oncology report that radiation treatment — despite killing half of all tumor cells during every treatment — transforms other cancer cells into treatment-resistant breast cancer stem cells.

  The generation of these breast cancer stem cells counteracts the otherwise highly efficient radiation treatment. If scientists can uncover the mechanisms and prevent this transformation from occurring, radiation treatment for breast cancer could become even more effective, said study senior author Dr. Frank Pajonk, an associate professor of radiation oncology and Jonsson Cancer Center researcher.

  cancer stem cells future medical research
  3 months ago reblog like 5 notes