Tamoxifen is a widely used and highly successful drug in the treatment of breast cancer, though resistance to tamoxifen is still a concern in recurrent disease, since therapy resistant metastatic tumor cells are a major cause of death. Now, researchers have uncovered a protein profile that may accurately predict whether a cancer will be tamoxifen resistant.
In the fruit fly’s developing brain, stem cells called neuroblasts normally divide to create one self-renewing neuroblast and one cell that has a different fate. But neuroblast growth can sometimes spin out of control and become a brain tumor. Researchers have found a tumor-suppressing protein in the fly’s brain, with a counterpart in mammals, that can apparently prevent brain tumors from forming.
Research has shown for the first time how cancers that spread to the brain establish themselves and begin to grow.
Engineers have taken a first step toward a minimally invasive treatment of brain tumors by combining chemotherapy with heat administered from the end of a catheter.
Researchers, on a quest to find lung cancer stem cells, have developed a unique model to allow further investigation into the cells that many believe may be at the root of all lung cancers.
As survival rates among some patients with cancer continue to rise, so does the spread of these cancers to the brain — as much as 40 percent of all diagnosed brain cancers are considered metastatic, having spread from a primary cancer elsewhere in the body. Now, scientists have discovered a molecular mechanism that plays a pivotal role in controlling cancer growth in the brain. The discovery could provide a basis for potentially effective therapies for the treatment of brain metastasis.
A simple magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test involving breathing oxygen might help oncologists determine the best treatment for some cancer patients.
tumors need a healthy supply of blood to grow and spread. Researchers have identified a molecule that regulates blood vessel growth that is often found at less-than-normal levels in human tumors. Blocking the expression of the molecule, called PHD2, allows human cancer cells to grow more quickly when implanted into mice and increases the number of blood vessels feeding the tumor.
Scientists have found that a deficiency in a key tumor suppressor gene in the brain leads to the most common type of adult brain cancer. The study, conducted in mice that mimic human cancer, points the way to more effective future treatments and a way to screen for the disease early.
