News

New Discoveries September 1, 2022

Chasing two oncoproteins across dozens of human cancers

The proteins CDK4 and CDK6 are well-known regulators of the cell cycle, driving cells into the DNA replication phase that occurs before cell division. Since their discovery in the 1990s, scientists have understood that mutations in these regulatory proteins can lead to uncontrolled cell division, or cancer. Thanks to persistent research efforts over the past thirty years, CDK4/6 inhibitors have been approved for the treatment of breast cancer, but given the disruptive power of these oncoproteins, it is likely that such inhibitors could be effective for other types of cancer as well. When it comes to targeted therapies, more specific means less toxic, so understanding which proteins to target in each cancer is a crucial first step.

New Discoveries August 22, 2022

Mapping the human brain one cell at a time

The outermost layer of the human brain, known as the cerebral cortex, is responsible for our highest mental capacities—language, memory, emotion, decision-making, and much more. It contains an immense diversity of cells, between 14 and 16 billion neurons, organized in patterns complex enough to elude the farthest reaches of neuroscience.

New Discoveries August 19, 2022

New insight into nausea may provide relief for cancer patients

As anyone who has undergone chemotherapy or radiation therapy knows, nausea is a frequent and distressing side effect and anti-nausea medications do not always work. Effective remedies for nausea are critical for cancer patients’ quality of life and ability to continue with treatment. But as with many types of pain, such remedies require a better understanding of the neural pathways that produce the sensation.

New Discoveries August 17, 2022

New drug combo shows promise for head and neck cancer

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, or HNSCC, is a cancer that develops in the mucous membranes of the mouth, nose, and throat, most often affecting men in their 50s and 60s. HNSCC is generally treated with surgery, followed by chemotherapy and/or radiation, but given the functional importance of the affected area, less severe treatment options could vastly improve patients’ quality of life. Additionally, the prognosis for patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive head and neck cancer is much better than that of HPV-negative patients, highlighting the need for expanded treatment options.

New Discoveries July 29, 2022

How pancreatic cancer survivors shed light on the immune system

Despite the best efforts of cancer researchers and clinicians, pancreatic cancer remains a highly lethal disease, with only 5% of patients surviving 5 years after their diagnosis. This is in part because pancreatic cancer cells have relatively few mutations, meaning fewer strange-looking proteins, or neoantigens, on their surface to attract the attention of cancer-killing immune T cells. This makes most pancreatic tumors “immune cold,” safe from detection by the body’s defense system.

New Discoveries July 14, 2022

A closer look at the mutant proteins that drive melanoma

Ras proteins, present in all mammalian cells, are molecular switches that control the processes of cell survival and proliferation. Unsurprisingly, mutations in any of the three RAS genes (KRAS, NRAS, or HRAS) can lead to uncontrolled cell growth, or cancer. Since these cancer drivers were first identified in the 1980s, it has been clear that different types of cancer are coupled with specific RAS mutants. For example, nearly 90% of pancreatic tumors display KRAS mutations, while NRAS mutations are more likely to appear in blood cancers. Why these associations exist, however, is not well understood.

New Discoveries July 13, 2022

Caffeine may reduce liver metastasis in colon cancer

Colorectal cancer is among the leading causes of cancer deaths worldwide, second only to lung cancer. As with many cancers, the primary cause of death in this type of cancer is metastasis, or when the cancer spreads from its original tissue to another organ in the body. In colorectal cancer, the liver is most common site of metastasis—more than half of all colorectal cancer patients will develop tumors in their liver during the course of their disease. Targeting the genes and pathways that promote liver metastasis may be key to developing better treatments for colorectal cancer, but until recently, these genetic mechanisms were not well defined.

New Discoveries July 11, 2022

Tracing tumor evolution from a single cell

Like living species, cancer cell populations undergo evolution. They accumulate mutations and become heterogeneous, and the mutations that increase chances of survival become more common. In this way, a single genetic alteration can evolve into a tumor and eventually spread throughout the body. Understanding the evolutionary path that tumors follow, from a single-cell mutation to metastatic cancer, is essential for designing effective clinical interventions. However, environmental factors and other variables can confound efforts to trace a cancer’s development from beginning to end.

New Discoveries July 8, 2022

“Everything you know about survival analysis in cancer is wrong”: A new approach to prognostication

Cancer treatment decision-making depends on an accurate understanding of a patient’s prognosis. Mistaking a cancer’s aggressiveness can lead to either under- or overtreatment, both of which carry increased risk of fatality. Current methods of prognostication, which usually rely on examining cancerous tissue via X-ray or microscope, involve subjective judgments and sometimes fail to predict disease course. With the rise of DNA sequencing technologies, clinicians are increasingly looking to patients’ genomes for clues about how their cancer will behave.

New Discoveries June 23, 2022

Uncovering genetic foundations of pediatric liver cancer

Last fall, we published the story of Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Jennifer M. Kalish, MD, PhD, a pediatric geneticist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who has dedicated her career to the study of Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS), a rare genetic condition that causes overgrowth in certain parts of the body and predisposes children to cancers of the kidney and liver. As Founding Director of the hospital’s Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome Clinic, Dr. Kalish established the country’s first and only active BWS patient registry and biorepository storing blood and tissue samples necessary for research. In December 2020, her lab unveiled the first human cell-based model of the syndrome, developed using cells from patients in the registry.

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