http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Cancer cells break down sugars and produce the metabolic acid lactate at a much higher rate than normal cells. This phenomenon provides a telltale sign that cancer is present, via diagnostics such as PET scans, and possibly offers an avenue for novel cancer therapies. Now a team of Chilean researchers at The Centro de Estudios Científicos (CECs), with the collaboration of Carnegie's Wolf Frommer, has devised a molecular sensor that can detect levels of lactate in individual cells in real time. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-cancer-diagnostic-technique-debuts.html Cancer Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:21:05 EST news282478855 A groundbreaking new study led by the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center's Dr. Peter Zhou found that triple-negative breast cancer cells are missing a key enzyme that other cancer cells contain—providing insight into potential therapeutic targets to treat the aggressive cancer. Zhou's study is unique in that his lab is the only one in the country to specifically study the metabolic process of triple-negative breast cancer cells. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-key-enzyme-aggressive-breast-cancer.html Cancer Thu, 28 Feb 2013 13:45:04 EST news281281484 The metabolic process which fuels the growth of many cancers has its origins in normal brain growth finds a new study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Cancer & Metabolism. Using knock-out mice the study shows that interfering with Hexokinase-2 (Hk2), an enzyme integral to glucose metabolism, reduces the aggressiveness of medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumor in children, and allows long term survival of mice. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-oxygen-free-energy-fuel-brain-spurs.html Cancer Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:00:02 EST news278098718 Cancer cells grow fast. That's an essential characteristic of what makes them cancer cells. They've crashed through all the cell-cycle checkpoints and are continuously growing and dividing, far outstripping our normal cells. To do this they need to speed up their metabolism. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-team-antisense-technology-exploits-gene.html Cancer Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:20:08 EST news270930907 Two papers led by scientific teams from the Cancer Genetics Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) shed new light on the genetic mechanisms underlying cellular energy and metabolism and, at the same time, highlight both the challenges and opportunities of genetic approaches to cancer treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-uncovers-diverse-metabolic-roles-pml.html Cancer Thu, 30 Aug 2012 12:44:04 EST news265549439 It has long been known that cancer cells use nutrients differently than normal cells. In recent years, the rapidly reemerging field of cancer metabolism has shed new light on the ways that cancers use glucose to grow and thrive, demonstrating that manipulation of an enzyme called PKM2 is important to this metabolic process. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-role-pkm2-cancer-cells-survive.html Cancer Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:04:38 EST news239547858 (Medical Xpress) -- It's long been known that cancer cells eat a lot of sugar to stay alive. In fact, where normal, noncancerous cells generate energy from using some sugar and a lot of oxygen, cancerous cells use virtually no oxygen and a lot of sugar. Many genes have been implicated in this process and now, reporting in the May 27 issue of Cell, researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered that this so-called Warburg effect is controlled. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-cancer-energetics.html Cancer Sat, 04 Jun 2011 02:20:39 EST news226372765