Researchers target cancer's ability to survive at low oxygen levels
Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have shed light on how cancer cells survive in the first few hours after being cut off from a supply of oxygen.
Mar 14, 2024
0
11
Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have shed light on how cancer cells survive in the first few hours after being cut off from a supply of oxygen.
Mar 14, 2024
0
11
A collaborative project to bring the promise of cell therapy to patients with a deadly form of brain cancer has shown dramatic results among the first patients to receive the novel treatment. In a paper published in the New ...
Mar 13, 2024
0
146
Targeting two brain tumor-associated proteins—rather than one—with CAR T cell therapy shows promise as a strategy for reducing solid tumor growth in patients with recurrent glioblastoma (GBM), an aggressive form of brain ...
Mar 13, 2024
0
89
A cross-college collaboration is opening new doors in the study of male infertility by breaking down a key step in sperm formation. Isolating the intricacies of meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI), will now enable ...
Mar 12, 2024
0
16
Some cancerous tumors hijack proteins that act as "brakes" on our immune system and use them to form a sort of shield against immune recognition. Immunotherapy treatments have been created that turn off these "brakes" and ...
Mar 11, 2024
0
45
Cancer cells are characterized by their aggressiveness: they grow rapidly and spread to other parts of the body. To enable this, numerous mechanisms come into play, and one of them involves a protein called MYC, which activates ...
Mar 7, 2024
0
34
A pioneering Phase I CAR T cell therapy trial for the treatment of glioblastoma at City of Hope demonstrates promising clinical activity against incurable brain tumors, according to research published in Nature Medicine.
Mar 7, 2024
0
15
Common inherited genetic factors that predict cancer risk in the general population may also predict elevated risk of new cancers among childhood cancer survivors, according to a study led by researchers at the National Cancer ...
Mar 7, 2024
0
10
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy is a potent emerging weapon against cancer, altering patients' T cells so they can better find and destroy tumor cells. But CAR-T cell therapy doesn't work well in every cancer—including ...
Mar 1, 2024
0
9
A new study identified a set of 140 genes that may help predict enhanced disease-free survival in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with a combination of immunotherapy and low-dose radiation. The results, ...
Feb 23, 2024
0
29
Cancer (medical term: malignant neoplasm) is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth (division beyond the normal limits), invasion (intrusion on and destruction of adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastasis (spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood). These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited, and do not invade or metastasize. Most cancers form a tumor but some, like leukemia, do not. The branch of medicine concerned with the study, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer is oncology.
Cancer may affect people at all ages, even fetuses, but the risk for most varieties increases with age. Cancer causes about 13% of all human deaths. According to the American Cancer Society, 7.6 million people died from cancer in the world during 2007. Cancers can affect all animals.
Nearly all cancers are caused by abnormalities in the genetic material of the transformed cells. These abnormalities may be due to the effects of carcinogens, such as tobacco smoke, radiation, chemicals, or infectious agents. Other cancer-promoting genetic abnormalities may be randomly acquired through errors in DNA replication, or are inherited, and thus present in all cells from birth. The heritability of cancers are usually affected by complex interactions between carcinogens and the host's genome. New aspects of the genetics of cancer pathogenesis, such as DNA methylation, and microRNAs are increasingly recognized as important.
Genetic abnormalities found in cancer typically affect two general classes of genes. Cancer-promoting oncogenes are typically activated in cancer cells, giving those cells new properties, such as hyperactive growth and division, protection against programmed cell death, loss of respect for normal tissue boundaries, and the ability to become established in diverse tissue environments. Tumor suppressor genes are then inactivated in cancer cells, resulting in the loss of normal functions in those cells, such as accurate DNA replication, control over the cell cycle, orientation and adhesion within tissues, and interaction with protective cells of the immune system.
Diagnosis usually requires the histologic examination of a tissue biopsy specimen by a pathologist, although the initial indication of malignancy can be symptoms or radiographic imaging abnormalities. Most cancers can be treated and some cured, depending on the specific type, location, and stage. Once diagnosed, cancer is usually treated with a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. As research develops, treatments are becoming more specific for different varieties of cancer. There has been significant progress in the development of targeted therapy drugs that act specifically on detectable molecular abnormalities in certain tumors, and which minimize damage to normal cells. The prognosis of cancer patients is most influenced by the type of cancer, as well as the stage, or extent of the disease. In addition, histologic grading and the presence of specific molecular markers can also be useful in establishing prognosis, as well as in determining individual treatments.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA