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UrduAs they grow, solid tumors surround themselves with a thick, hard-to-penetrate wall of molecular defenses. Getting drugs past that barricade is notoriously difficult. Now, scientists at UT Southwestern have developed nanoparticles that can break down the physical barriers around tumors to reach cancer cells. Once inside, the nanoparticles release their payload: a gene editing system that alters DNA inside the tumor, blocking its growth and activating the immune system.
Tag: Tumor
Pushing T cells down “memory lane” may improve cancer therapy
Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital identified proteins that help decide T cell fate and used the finding to improve CAR-T cell therapy in a solid tumor model.
Wistar Scientists Identify Novel Therapeutic Approach to Re-activate Immune Response Against Tumors
Wistar scientists identified that inhibiting therapeutic target KDM5A boosts a person’s immune response to tumors.
Sidekick Microbubbles Carry Anti-Cancer Drugs, Damage Tumor Vessels #ASA182
Naomi Matsuura, of the University of Toronto, and her team are adapting microbubbles to become more potent tools for cancer therapy. By shrinking the bubbles and directly loading them with anti-cancer drugs, the bubbles can lower the dose of free drug that is injected and diffuses into nontumor tissue in the body. This results in more targeted treatment and fewer side effects for the patient. Matsuura will discuss her team’s results in her presentation, “Ultrasound-stimulated, drug-loaded bubbles for cancer therapy,” as part of the 182nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel. The session will take place May 24 at 11:30 a.m. Eastern U.S.
New pathway for DNA transfer discovered in tumor microenvironment
University of Notre Dame researchers have discovered another way tumor cells transfer genetic material to other cells in their microenvironment, causing cancer to spread.
How distance from care affects cancer outcomes
In a seemingly counterintuitive finding, young adults diagnosed with central nervous system (CNS) tumors might have better survival rates the farther they live from care finds a study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.
Study links free radicals to heart damage caused by cancer
A new study in animal models shows that a cancer tumor alone can lead to cardiac damage, and suggests the culprits are free radicals interacting with cells in the heart. Adding antioxidants to food consumed by fruit flies with tumors reversed the damage to their hearts.
Discovery offers potential for stripping tumors of T cell protection
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has discovered a mechanism that tumors use to switch on protective regulatory T cells, raising the potential for drug treatments that render tumors more vulnerable to cancer immunotherapy.
Singing a Tumor Test Song
Singing may be the next-generation, noninvasive approach to determining the health of a patient’s thyroid. When a person sings, the vibrations create waves in the tissue near the vocal tract called shear waves. If a tumor is present in the thyroid, the elasticity of its surrounding tissue increases, stiffening, and causing the shear waves to accelerate. Using ultrasound imaging to measure these waves, researchers can determine the elasticity of the thyroid tissue. They demonstrate the technique in Applied Physics Letters.
MRI frequently underestimates tumor size in prostate cancer
Improving imaging processes will lead to more successful treatments and help reduce morbidity in men with the disease.
Ludwig Cancer Research Study Reveals How Circular ecDNA is Generated and Drives Drug Resistance in Cancer
Researchers led by Ludwig San Diego Member Don Cleveland and Peter Campbell of the Sanger Center have solved the mystery of how free-floating circular DNA fragments, which are almost exclusively found in cancer cells, drive gene amplification to generate drug resistance in cancer.
Ludwig Cancer Research Study Reveals How Circular ecDNA is Generated and Drives Drug Resistance in Cancer
Researchers led by Ludwig San Diego Member Don Cleveland and Peter Campbell of the Sanger Center have solved the mystery of how free-floating circular DNA fragments, which are almost exclusively found in cancer cells, drive gene amplification to generate drug resistance in cancer.
Girl gets her smile back – and a new jaw – thanks to innovative tissue engineering procedure
Nine-year-old Grace Moss of Laredo, Texas, was facing a daunting prospect. A tumor that had invaded her jaw had been removed, but now the plastic surgeon wanted to remove her fibula – the smaller of the two bones in her lower leg – to use as a graft.
Personalized drug screens could guide treatment for children with brain cancer
Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Hopp Children’s Cancer Center Heidelberg (KiTZ) have demonstrated that personalized drug screens can be used to identify new therapeutic candidates for medulloblastoma. The approach measures the effectiveness of therapeutics using tumor cells obtained from a biopsy and can be performed in a few days—making it one of the quickest sources of information used in clinical decision-making.
New approach to fighting cancer could reduce costs and side effects
CAR-T biotherapeutics company Carina Biotech and researchers at the University of South Australia have developed a novel approach based on microfluidic technology to “purify” the immune cells of patients in the fight against cancer.
Liver cancer treatment showing positive results, Tulane study says
A biomedical engineering research team from Tulane University is developing a novel cancer treatment hepatocellular carcinoma, a highly fatal form of liver cancer.
Maryam Fouladi, MD, Named Co-Executive Director of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Program
Dr. Fouladi will continue her extensive work on brain stem gliomas (DIPG) at Nationwide Children’s alongside Jeffrey Leonard, MD, co-executive director of the Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Program and chief of Neurosurgery at Nationwide Children’s.
Novel Method Can Diagnose Cancer and Determine Metastatic Risk in Two Hours
A novel mechanobiology-based technology can predict the metastatic potential of a tumor. The technology has already been successfully tested on pancreatic tumor cell samples and on established breast and pancreatic cell lines.
St. Jude Cloud portal expands access to treasure trove of pediatric solid tumor data
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital develops the Childhood Solid Tumor Network data portal to speed discoveries and novel therapies for treatment of childhood solid tumors
Cancer researchers identify checkpoint target for colorectal cancer immunotherapy
Researchers at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a target for colorectal cancer immunotherapy.
Brooke Emerling awarded Research Scholar Grant by American Cancer Society
Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute is pleased to announce that the American Cancer Society has awarded Brooke Emerling, Ph.D., a Research Scholar Grant (RSG) to study a new approach to targeting tumors that have a mutation in the p53 gene—the most altered gene in human cancers. The grants are often a career-launching award for “rising stars” in the cancer research arena. The four-year grant will help advance Emerling’s research toward eliminating cancer as a major health problem.
Personalized Microrobots Swim Through Biological Barriers, Deliver Drugs to Cells
Biohybrid robots on the micrometer scale can swim through the body and deliver drugs to tumors or provide other cargo-carrying functions. To be successful, they must consist of materials that can pass through the body’s immune response, swim quickly through viscous environments and penetrate tissue cells to deliver cargo. In this week’s APL Bioengineering, researchers fabricated biohybrid bacterial microswimmers by combining a genetically engineered E. coli MG1655 substrain and nanoerythrosomes, small structures made from red blood cells.
Roswell Park’s Dr. Pawel Kalinski to Lead $14.5M NCI-Funded Immunotherapy Effort
A team led by Pawel Kalinski, MD, PhD, of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has earned a five-year, $14.54 million award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to expand a promising immunotherapy platform. Funded through the NCI’s Program Project Grant program, this prestigious five-year grant will fund five clinical trials, all focused on a strategy for making some of the most common immunotherapies work for more cancer patients.
Aggressive features in some small thyroid tumors increase the risk for metastasis
Results from a new large-scale study show that in nearly 20 percent of patients, papillary thyroid tumors less than 1 cm in size had pathological signs of more aggressive disease that increased the risk that these patients might develop distant metastasis.
Scientists Develop Free Computer Program to Map Blood Flow ‘Landscape’ in Tumors
Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have created a computer program for scientists at no charge that lets users readily quantify the structural and functional changes in the blood flow networks feeding tumors.
Designer Probiotic Treatment for Cancer Immunotherapy
Columbia Engineers have engineered probiotics to safely deliver immunotherapies within tumors, including nanobodies against two proven therapeutic targets—PD-L1 and CTLA-4. Continuously released by bacteria, the drugs continue to attack the tumor after just one dose, facilitating an immune response resulting in tumor regression. The versatile probiotic platform can also be used to deliver multiple immunotherapies simultaneously, enabling the release of effective therapeutic combinations within the tumor for more difficult-to-treat cancers like colorectal cancer.
Absent p53, oral cancers recruit and reprogram nerves to fuel tumor growth
Loss of an important tumor-suppressing gene allows head and neck cancer to spin off signals to nearby nerves, changing their function and recruiting them to the tumor, where they fuel growth and cancer progress.
Can the flu shot help fight cancer?
Physicians and scientists at Rush University Medical Center have found that injecting tumors with influenza vaccines, including some FDA-approved seasonal flu shots, turns cold tumors to hot, a discovery that could lead to an immunotherapy to treat cancer. The study results were published December 30th in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
University of Chicago scientists unveil the secret of cancer-associated Warburg effect
A new study, led by researchers at the University of Chicago, provides an answer to why cancer cells consume and use nutrients differently than their healthy counterparts and how that difference contributes to their survival and growth.