http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Rather than stimulating immune cells to more effectively battle cancerous tumors, treatment with the protein interleukin-12 (IL-12) has the opposite effect, driving these intracellular fighters to exhaustion, a Mayo Clinic study has found. The findings appear in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.The study helps explain the negative results of clinical trials testing the treatment's ability to ramp up the body's natural immune response to destroy cancer cells. The study also demonstrates that the same "T cell exhaustion" that plagues specialized immune cells during chronic viral infections also affects cells fighting long bouts of cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-exhaustion-immune-cells-effective-cancer.html Immunology Wed, 09 May 2012 11:27:38 EST news255781623 (Medical Xpress) -- The very first in the series of mutations causing colon cancer occurs in the beta-catenin gene; this gene is abnormally activated in about 90 percent of colorectal cancer patients, and in a much smaller percentage of people with almost every other type of cancer. Beta-catenin plays a dual role in the cell: it promotes adhesion, or stickiness, between cells, and regulates the expression of genes in the nucleus. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-outwitting-brainy-gene.html Cancer Tue, 01 May 2012 10:40:01 EST news255084489 Scientists who developed a technology for identifying and targeting unique protein receptor ZIP Codes on the cellular surface have found a way to penetrate the outer membrane and deliver engineered particles - called iPhage - to organelles inside the cell. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-scientists-tailor-cell-surface-organelle.html Medical research Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:17:25 EST news253898239 Screening for lung cancer with low dose CT scans has been shown to save lives. However, research shows that when CT scans reveal nodules in the lungs, it is not cancerous 96 percent of the time. As a result, scientists are looking for ways to more accurately make a diagnosis. One way is by using a CT guided transthoracic fine needle aspiration. Research presented in the May 2012 issue of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer's (IASLC) Journal of Thoracic Oncology shows that this highly sensitive technique might be the best way to diagnose pulmonary nodules. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-obstacles-fine-needle-aspiration-diagnostic.html Cancer Sun, 15 Apr 2012 13:35:37 EST news253715731 Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered how exposure to arsenic can turn normal stem cells into cancer stem cells and spur tumor growth. Inorganic arsenic, which affects the drinking water of millions of people worldwide, has been previously shown to be a human carcinogen. A growing body of evidence suggests that cancer is a stem-cell based disease. Normal stem cells are essential to normal tissue regeneration, and to the stability of organisms and processes. But cancer stem cells are thought to be the driving force for the formation, growth, and spread of tumors. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-arsenic-stem-cells-cancerous-spurring.html Cancer Wed, 04 Apr 2012 08:27:25 EST news252746818 Genomic instability caused by an erosion of the protective caps on chromosomes, followed by activation of an enzyme that reinforces those caps, allows malignant cells to evade destruction and acquire more deadly characteristics, researchers report in an Online Now article at the journal Cell. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-telomere-failure-telomerase-prostate-cancer.html Cancer Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:39:27 EST news249043161 Inhibiting telomerase, an enzyme that rescues malignant cells from destruction by extending the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes, kills tumor cells but also triggers resistance pathways that allow cancer to survive and spread, scientists report in the Feb. 17 issue of Cell. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-blocking-telomerase-cancer-cells-provokes.html Cancer Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:34:14 EST news249042846 Aggressive ovarian tumors begin as malignant cells kept in check by the immune system until, suddenly and unpredictably, they explode into metastatic cancer. New findings from scientists at The Wistar Institute demonstrate that ovarian tumors don't necessarily break "free" of the immune system, rather dendritic cells of the immune system seem to actively support the tumor's escape. The researchers show that it might be possible to restore the immune system by targeting a patient's own dendritic cells. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-traitorous-immune-cells-sudden-ovarian.html Cancer Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:50:36 EST news248953821 The trefoil factor 3 (TFF3) protein protects and maintains the integrity of the epithelial surface in the normal breast. New research has found that while TFF3 protein expression is higher in well-differentiated low grade tumors and therefore associated with features of a good prognosis, it has a more sinister role in breast cancer invasion and metastasis. The report is published in the March issue of the American Journal of Pathology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-protein-functions-breast-contribute-cancer.html Cancer Thu, 16 Feb 2012 05:20:01 EST news248590309 The UC Cancer Institute is one of three centers internationally approved to test an experimental drug's safety and pharmacokinetics and also assess the clinical benefit against recurrent malignant glioma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-first-in-human-drug-malignant-glioma-experimental.html Cancer Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:58:39 EST news248529502 A collaborative project between physicists, oncologists and computer scientists at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, launched last month, will develop improved tools for the planning of high precision radiotherapy. Accel-RT will also help overcome time constraints that currently limit the use of complex radiotherapy treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-radiotherapy.html Other Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:30:01 EST news247133652 Despite advances in both the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, the disease remains a leading worldwide health concern. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-cell-ct-dimension-breast-cancer.html Cancer Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:29:18 EST news245006944 Suppressing a newly identified and characterized protein involved in regulating cell division could be a novel strategy to fight certain cancers because it stops the malignant cells from dividing and causes them to die quickly, according to a study by researchers with UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-suppression-protein-critical-cell-division.html Cancer Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:32:00 EST news242645511 Mayo Clinic has received investigational new drug approval from the Food and Drug Administration for two new cancer vaccines that mobilize the body's defense mechanisms to destroy malignant cells. The vaccines are among the first aimed at preventing cancer recurrence. The approval clears the way for Phase I clinical trials with women treated for ovarian or breast cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-mayo-clinic-fda-ovarian-breast.html Cancer Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:46:24 EST news232807571 A mutant gene long thought to accelerate tumor growth in thyroid cancer patients actually inhibits the spread of malignant cells, showing promise for novel cancer therapies, a Mayo Clinic study has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-cancer-mayo-clinic-thyroid-gene.html Cancer Sat, 04 Jun 2011 13:45:36 EST news226413912 Researchers with UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered a way to amp up the power of killer T-cells, called CD8 cells, making them more functional for longer periods of time and boosting their ability to multiply and expand within the body to fight melanoma, a new study has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-scientists-amp-power-killer-cells.html Medical research Tue, 10 May 2011 09:10:57 EST news224237408