Damon Runyon identifies today’s most brilliant early career scientists and funds their innovative cancer research.
- Today’s Promising Areas of Cancer Research
- What is Cancer?
- A Broken Pipeline?
A Generation of Science at Risk
- ARISE Report
Early Career Scientists and High-Risk, High Reward Research - American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Why We’re Losing the War on Cancer (And How To Win It)
Clifton Leaf - Fortune Magazine
December 3, 2009 > New understanding of cancer stem cell resistance to radiation
Jeremy N. Rich, MD (Damon Runyon-Lilly Clinical Investigator ‘04-‘09), Bruce Sullenger, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow ‘91-‘93) and Xiao-Fan Wang, PhD (‘87-‘89) at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, reported the role of the Notch signaling pathway in cancer stem cell resistance. They demonstrated that Notch is the likely reason that cancer stem cells resist radiation better than other cancer cells. In a petri dish, blocking Notch activity in glioma brain tumor cells with a drug called a gamma-secretase inhibitor makes the cells susceptible to radiation. These results suggest that a combination therapy of Notch inhibitor drugs plus radiotherapy could be very effective means of controlling tumors. The findings were published in the journal Stem Cells.