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Scientific breakthrough could offer melanoma cure

May 16, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

London, May 16 (ANI): A long-awaited jab, being hailed as a scientific breakthrough which could offer a cure for cancer, is to be tested on the first British patients within weeks.

According to researchers, it can reverse and even cure melanoma, one of the deadliest forms of the disease, most commonly associated with skin cancer, reports The Daily Express.

Professor Lindy Durrant of Nottingham University, who is heading research into the treatment, said: “This is huge. We could now have a vaccine that can target a tumour and kill it without damage to surrounding healthy tissues or cells.

“In the short term, this could cure some patients with the disease and in the long term the jab could be used to prevent people developing it in the first place.”

Trials will begin at hospitals in Manchester, Nottingham and Newcastle.

Brainchild of vaccine company Scancell, the treatment will be given to patients with advanced skin cancer which has spread to other parts of the body, and also to those in the earlier stages of the disease. (ANI)

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Jordan’s hubby injects himself with cancer-related fake-tan drug

April 30, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

London, Apr 30 (ANI): Katie Price’s husband Alex Reid injects himself with a fake-tan drug, which is linked to cancer.

The recently married couple will be shocked to hear that regular use of Melanotan can lead to the killer disease.

And for Jordan, 31, it could be far more terrifying, for she has suffered her own cancer scare when she had a tumour removed from a finger.

Alex, 34, injects the drug straight into his stomach, meaning it gets into his bloodstream quickly.

However, Melanotan, which is only available on the Internet for around 25 pounds, is “untested and unlicensed”.

Its main ingredient was developed to guard against skin cancer, but medics believe that long-term use can cause the disease.

“It may give you a nice tan at the moment but we don’t know what kind of long-term effects it could have,” the Daily Star quoted Florence Palmer, from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Service, as saying.

Alex’s habit came out via Celebrity Big Brother housemate Vinnie Jones, 45, who called it “weird”. (ANI)

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Decreased breast density over time means decreased breast cancer risk

April 21, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 21 (ANI): A decrease in breast density, depicted via the proportion of fibroglandular tissue on the mammogram image, over time indicates a decreased risk of breast cancer, according to a study.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic campus in Minnesota found a 28 percent reduced risk of developing breast cancer in women whose breasts decreased in density, as seen from two different mammograms taken an average of six years apart, compared to women whose breast density did not change.

Dr. Celine Vachon, study”s lead investigator, said that two measures of breast density may, therefore, provide additional information for assessing breast cancer risk.

However, she added that this information is not ready for use in clinical practice to inform breast cancer risk.

“Replication of these findings in other studies will be important. Also, improved and standardized measurements of breast density are needed for the assessment of changes in density,” she said.

The current assessment available in most clinical settings is BI-RADS, Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System, which is relatively unsophisticated when it comes to measuring breast density and was not intended for this purpose, said Vachon.

“There is a lot of ongoing work aimed at improving measures of density, so that situation should change,” she added.

This study was drawn from the Mammography Health Study, which enrolled 19,924 women who were free of breast cancer, had screening mammograms performed at Mayo Clinic between 2003 and 2006 and resided in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.

From this large group, the researchers selected participants who had at least one additional screening mammogram prior to enrolment, and then looked at clinic and tumour registries in the three Midwestern states to determine if any of these women developed breast cancer after enrolling in the study.

Measures of mammographic density were obtained from the two mammograms, an average of six years apart, for the approximately 1,900 women randomly sampled from the cohort, and from all 219 individuals who were diagnosed with breast cancer during follow-up.

The researchers found that women who developed breast cancer were less likely to experience a decrease in density in a second mammogram.

After adjusting for other potential factors contributing to breast cancer development, the researchers found that women who decreased one BI-RADS category or more over an average of six years were at 28 percent reduced risk of developing breast cancer, compared to women whose density was unchanged.

“We know that breast density can change with time, as evidenced by decreases seen with women going through menopause or using the breast cancer preventive drug tamoxifen and increases seen with postmenopausal hormone therapy use. Our results suggest that decreases in density may translate to decreased breast cancer risk,” said Vachon.

The study was presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 101st Annual Meeting 2010. (ANI)

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Navratilova diagnosed with breast cancer

April 8, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova has revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

The 53-year-old, who won 18 grand slam titles including nine Wimbledon singles titles, said she cried after finding out she had the disease.

Navratilova, 53, said when she heard the diagnosis she felt she had suffered her “personal 9/11″.

“I was devastated,” she told (US) ABC television’s Good Morning America on being diagnosed in February, when a routine mammogram revealed a cluster in her left breast.

She explained she had had a lumpectomy, that doctors had found the disease had not spread to her lymph nodes and that there was a “very small chance” of the cancer recurring.

“It is just in that one breast,” Navratilova said.

“I’m OK and I’ll make a full recovery.”

But she said that emotionally it had been a difficult time.

“I’m this healthy person, I’ve been healthy all my life, and all of a sudden I have cancer. Are you kidding me?” she said.

Navratilova told US magazine People: “It knocked me on my ass, really. I feel so in control of my life and my body, and then this comes, and it’s completely out of my hands.”

According to the report, doctors say the former Wimbledon champion’s prognosis is excellent because the tumour was detected at an early stage.

Navratilova has already had the lump removed and will begin six weeks of radiation therapy in May.

“It was a total shock because I’ve been so healthy,” she added.

“I thought, ‘I’m going to lose my boob and then my hair, and I don’t have that much. There’s a good chance it won’t come back’.”

The former world number one said she had intended to keep the news quiet but changed her mind when she realised she could persuade other women to go for check-ups.

“The sooner you catch it, the better,” she said.

“So get the bloody mammogram.

“I went four years between mammograms. I let it slide. Everyone gets busy, but don’t make excuses. I stay in shape and eat right, and it happened to me. Another year and I could have been in big trouble.”

Born in Prague, Navratilova fled to the United States in 1975 at the height of the Cold War.

She became a US citizen six years later but regained her Czech nationality two years ago, and has dual nationality.

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Singer donates to devil cause

March 26, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Australian rock legend Jon English is donating the proceeds from his Tasmanian concerts to help save Tasmanian Devils.

Mr English has been touring the country to raise awareness of the facial tumor disease which has wiped out 70 per cent of the devil population.

The profits of English’s Hobart and Launceston concerts will be given to the Bonorong Wildlife Park near Richmond.

Mr English says he wants Australians to know the extent to which the facial tumour disease threatens the devils’ survival.

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Healthy devils head to Maria

March 20, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

A healthy group of captive Tasmanian devils will soon be roaming freely on an island off Tasmania’s east coast.

Scientists from Tasmania’s Save the Devil Program have hand picked 80 captive male and female devils of all ages for release on Maria Island.

It is the first time the program has released healthy captive devils into the wild on an island.

Wildlife Biologist Drew Lee says the males will be sterilised to prevent breeding until it is clear what impact the devils are having on the island’s ecosystems.

“What we’re going to try and do is mimic a natural…population structure of the devils.”

“This is a very good opportunity to try and really understand the impacts of putting devils on islands which may become a major part of our insurance strategy,” he said.

A facial tumour disease has spread across 60 per cent of the state wiping out large sections of the devil population.

The devils will be released in small groups later this year.

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‘Negligent’ NHS blamed for Jade Goody’s death

March 20, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

London, March 20 (ANI): Jade Goody’s doctor has blamed “incompetent and negligent” staff at UK’s National Health Services (NHS) for the reality TV star’s death.

Ann Coxon, Harley Street consultant and former NHS doctor, blasted medics who, she said, failed to notice the Big Brother celebrity’s tumour, even when it was the “size of a tangerine”, which led to the 27-year-old’s death from cervical cancer on Mother”s Day last year.

“Her symptoms – which included heavy and irregular bleeding, pain and abnormal smear tests – can all indicate cancer. There should have been alarm bells ringing,” The Sun quoted Dr Coxon as saying.

“But Jade didn”t know that. She”d had abnormal smear tests since she was 16 so by the time she was 27 it didn”t worry her much, because she didn”t really know what it meant. It had never been properly explained to her.

“After she was diagnosed, she said to me, in that typically Jade way, ”I”m not daft. If I”d known it was to do with cancer, I”d have been checked out every three months”. Jade realised she had been let down. She simply said, ”Sometimes people make mistakes”.

“Jade”s death was completely unnecessary and preventable. She died of neglect and of incompetence,” Dr Coxon added.

Dr Coxon also said: “Jade”s story must never be forgotten. She need not have died if the medical profession had got their act together in time.” (ANI)

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Chilly gas ‘destroys’ breast cancer

March 17, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

London, Mar 17 (ANI): A safe, non-surgical cure for breast cancer has been offered in the form of a method that includes freezing tumors with streams of super-cold gas, say researchers.

The “ice-ball” created around a tumour by the jabs not only kills it off but also cuts the recurrence risk, reports The Daily Express.

In a technique known as cryotherapy, fine needles are used to inject the freezing gas around the tumour.

To reach the conclusion, boffins conducted a trial that was carried out on 13 patients who had all refused to have breast operations to remove their tumours.

They remained cancer-free up to five years later when doctors saw no sign of the disease returning and noted no significant complications, experts found.

Dr Peter Littrup, interventional radiologist at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, who led the study, said the findings suggested freezing tumours was both safe and effective.

“Minimally invasive cryotherapy opens the door for a potential new treatment for breast cancer and needs to be further tested,” he said. “When used for local control and – or – potential cure of breast cancer, it provided safe and effective breast conservation.”

In this method, cancer cells are destroyed within minutes of the injections and the patient suffers little pain or scarring.

The study was presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 35th Annual Scientific Meeting in Florida. (ANI)

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Pituitary tumour caused world’s tallest man’s gigantism

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 18 (ANI): The Turkish man crowned as the world’s tallest man suffers from a pituitary tumour which has resulted in his gigantic height.

Sultan Kosen stands eight-foot-one-inch tall and was unveiled as the tallest man in the world by the Guinness World Records.osen’s height is a result of a tumour in his pituitary gland, which has led to an over production of growth hormones, reports the National Geographic News.

The condition called pituitary gigantism has also led his feet to grow to almost 15 inches, while his hands are larger than 10 inches.t was only after the tumour was removed last year, that Kosen stopped growing.

The 27-year old is forced to use crutches as his height has weakened his knee joints.

The now-famous Kosen wants to travel around the world and meet a woman who would like to marry him. (ANI)

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Popular diabetes drug may help fight breast cancer

September 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 15 (ANI): A popular diabetes drug called metformin has been found to be effective in fighting breast cancer.

The findings of the study from Harvard Medical School showed that metformin, along with conventional chemotherapy, shows promise for treating and delaying recurrence of breast cancer.

“We have found a compound selective for cancer stem cells,” said senior author Kevin Struhl, the David Wesley Gaiser professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at HMS.

“What’s different is that ours is a first-line diabetes drug,” he added.

The drug seemed to work independently of its ability to improve insulin sensitivity and lower blood sugar and insulin levels, all of which are also associated with better breast cancer outcomes.

“There is a big desire to find drugs specific to cancer stem cells,” said Struhl.

“The cancer stem cell hypothesis says you cannot cure cancer unless you also get rid of the cancer stem cells. From a purely practical point of view, this could be tested in humans. It’s already used as a first-line diabetes drug,” he added.

Lead researchers Heather Hirsch and Dimitrios Iliopoulos found that the combination of metformin and the cancer drug doxorubicin killed human cancer stem cells and non-stem cancer cells in culture.

In mice, pre-treatment with the diabetes drug prevented the otherwise dramatic ability of human breast cancer stem cells to form tumours.

In cases where tumours were allowed to take hold for 10 days, the dual therapy also reduced tumour mass more quickly and prevented relapse for longer than doxorubicin alone.

“This is an exciting study,” said Jennifer Ligibel, a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and an HMS instructor in medicine, who was not involved in the study.

“There is a lot of interest in studying metformin in breast cancer, but so far we do not have direct evidence that metformin will improve outcomes in patients,” Ligibel said. “That’s what this trial is for.”

The findings appear online in the journal Cancer Research. (ANI)

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Turning off oncogene may inhibit lung cancer stem cells’ growth

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 9 (ANI): A lung cancer oncogene, called PKCiota, is necessary for the proliferation of lung cancer stem cells, and turning it off could act as a key for the treatment of this deadly disease, according to scientists at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida.

These stem cells are rare and powerful master cells that manufacture the other cells that make up lung tumours, and are resistant to chemotherapy treatment.

The study also shows that an agent, aurothiomalate, being tested at Mayo Clinic in a phase I clinical trial substantially inhibits growth of these cancer stem cells.

“Our data indicate that PKCiota is required for the earliest steps in the development of lung cancer, which is the expansion of tumor-initiating cells or cancer stem cells,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. Alan Fields.

“Lung cancer stem cells appear to be the major drivers in many common lung cancers, and in order for a therapeutic treatment to be effective, it has to disrupt these cancer stem cells. We show that aurothiomalate, the agent now being tested in lung cancer patients, can, in fact, target these cells,” he added.

While aurothiomalate was once used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, the researchers have now discovered that it can also target PKCiota.

Currently, the agent is being tested in patients at Mayo Clinic’s sites in Minnesota and Arizona and, based on this phase I trial, a phase II human clinical trial is planned to combine aurothiomalate with agents targeted at other molecules involved in cancer growth.

“We had previously shown that PKCiota is required to maintain tumor growth, but what this study sought to determine is whether PKCiota is involved in the initial steps of lung cancer development,” said Fields.

Fields said that, in mice, an oncogene known as Kras is thought to transform normal lung stem cells into cancer stem cells, thereby initiating lung cancer.

In the present study, the researchers established a strain of mice in which Kras can be activated at the same time that the PKCiota gene is inactivated.

They found that when the PKCiota gene is inactivated, Kras was unable to cause errant growth and expansion of lung stem cells in mice, the process that initiates tumour formation.

“What this told us is that Kras requires PKCiota to transform the lung stem cells and make them proliferate. In other words, PKCiota is downstream from Kras, and is necessary for Kras to initiate lung tumor formation,” said Fields.

After discovering that aurothiomalate disables PKCiota, the researchers tested whether this agent is effective against lung cancer that develops due to Kras mutation.

“The drug showed potent inhibitory effects on the Kras-dependent proliferation of lung cancer stem cells both in cell culture and in animals,” said Fields.

“That further suggests that a drug like aurothiomalate could have an effect on tumors that are dependent on either Kras or PKCiota for growth and survival, and that is potentially a lot of cancers.

Aurothiomalate appears to be one of the few drugs available that can effectively target these critical cancer stem cells. In the clinic, however, it is likely that aurothiomalate will be most effective when combined with other agents designed to target other tumor survival pathways,” he added.

The study has been published in Cancer Research. (ANI)

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Novel minimally invasive surgery for treating spinal cancer patients

September 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 8 (ANI): Doctors at Toronto Western Hospital have come up with a new minimally invasive, outpatient spine surgical procedure for treating cancer that has spread to the spine.

It is believed that almost 40-50 percent of metastic cancers end up in the spine and the most common primary cancers to spread to the bones of the spine are breast and lung cancer.

Spinal tumours can drastically affect a patient’s quality of life and result in pain and reduced mobility.

A spinal tumour or a growth of any kind can impinge on nerves, leading to pain, neurological problems and sometimes paralysis.

The new procedure involves a small incision in the back (the size of a loonie) in order to remove the tumour and stabilize the damaged spine.

Other than providing a shorter recovery time, its benefits also include allowing patients to receive radiation treatment shortly after surgery.

Traditional surgical methods involve a longer and more painful recovery process, thus making patients to wait weeks before resuming radiation treatment.

The combination of surgery and radiation leads to better outcomes and quality of life. (ANI)

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Here’s how exposure to diesel fumes causes cancer

September 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, September 3 (ANI): American scientists have for the first time shown how exposure to diesel fumes causes cancer.

Qinghua Sun, an assistant professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Ohio State University, says that diesel exhaust has the ability to induce the growth of new blood vessels that serve as a food supply for solid tumours.

The researchers found that in both healthy and diseased animals.

According to them, more new blood vessels sprouted in mice exposed to diesel exhaust than did in mice exposed to clean, filtered air.

They say that this finding indicates that previous illness is not required to make humans susceptible to the damaging effects of the diesel exhaust.

The researchers say that inhaled diesel particles are very tiny in size, which is why they can penetrate the human circulatory system, organs, and tissues.

This suggests that diesel fumes can cause damage just about anywhere in the body, they add.

Diesel exhaust exposure levels in the study were designed to mimic the exposure people might experience while living in urban areas and commuting in heavy traffic.

The levels were lower than or similar to those typically experienced by workers who use diesel-powered equipment, who tend to work in mines, on bridges and tunnels, along railroads, at loading docks, on farms and in vehicle maintenance garages, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

“The message from our study is that exposure to diesel exhaust for just a short time period of two months could give even normal tissue the potential to develop a tumour,” said Qinghua Sun, senior author of the study.

“We need to raise public awareness so people give more thought to how they drive and how they live so they can pursue ways to protect themselves and improve their health. And we still have a lot of work to do to improve diesel engines so they generate fewer particles and exhaust that can be released into the ambient air,” Sun added.

A research article on the study, supported by Health Effects Institute awards and grants from the National Institutes of Health, has been published in the online edition of the journal Toxicology Letters. (ANI)

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‘American Fritzl’ Garrido’s arrest was led by women’s intuition, say cops

August 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, August 30 (ANI): The two policewomen who finally arrested ‘American Fritzl’ Phillip Garrido, for holding a girl as sex slave with his wife Nancy for 18 years, have revealed that their suspicions were raised by “women’s intuition”.

Ally Jacobs and Lisa Campbell said that they became suspicious after being approached by Garrido at the University Of California, to seek permission to hold a religious event there.

They revealed that accompanying Garrido were two “robotic” little girls he fathered with his victim Jaycee Lee Dugard.

Ally recalled that the girls were pale, as if starved of light, and extremely submissive.

What particularly disturbed her was the way the girls dressed and acted, said the cop.

“I can best describe it as they were dressed monochrome. It was almost like Little House On The Prairie,” the News of the World quoted her as saying.

“They were like robots. The young one wouldn’t move and had this eerie smile and the older one had very rehearsed answers and she didn’t very much like talking to us,” she added.

Ally further revealed that one of Garrido’s daughters even told them that there was a third girl living at his house.

The cop said: “The younger daughter told me, ‘We have an older sister aged 28.’ The older daughter said, without missing a beat, ’29′. And she seemed bothered that was even mentioned.”

Ally said that she and Lisa were certain that the little girl was talking about Jaycee.

She revealed that she even asked the younger daughter about a “tumour- like” bump under her brow, fearing that it could be a sign of child abuse.

She recalled: “She immediately replied with this very rehearsed response, ‘It’s a birth defect, inoperable, I will have it for the rest of my life.’ I’m a mother. I have two young sons and this is when my police mode turned into my mother’s mode, kind of mother’s intuition.”

Ally and Lisa said that they asked Garrido to return the next day, so that they would get some time to check his records.

Upon investigation, the cop duo found Garrido to be a registered sex offender on parole for kidnap and rape.

Recalling a discussion with Garrido’s parole officer, Ally said: “He stopped me when I said he brought in his two daughters. He said, ‘He doesn’t have two daughters.’ I felt sick.”

The discovery finally led to Garrido and Nancy’s arrests. (ANI)

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Scientists find novel way to deliver cancer-fighting molecules

August 28, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Aug 28 (ANI): Scientists from University of Iowa have found a novel way to inject cancer-fighting molecules in the bloodstream and inhibit tumour growth.

Small interfering RNA (siRNA), a type of genetic material, are known to block potentially harmful activity in cells, such as tumour cell growth.

But delivering siRNA successfully to specific cells without adversely affecting other cells has been challenging.

In the new study, the researchers have modified siRNA so that it can be injected into the bloodstream and impact targeted cells while producing fewer side effects.

The findings, which were based on animal models of prostate cancer, also could make it easier to create large amounts of targeted therapeutic siRNAs for treating cancer and other diseases.

“Our goal was to make siRNA deliverable through the bloodstream and make it more specific to the genes that are over expressed in cancer,” Nature quoted Dr Paloma Giangrande, assistant professor of internal medicine and a member of Holden Comprehensive Cancer Centre as saying.

Previous studies have shown that a compound called an aptamer can be combined with siRNA to target certain genes.

However, in the new study, the researchers trimmed the size of a prostate cancer-specific aptamer and modified the siRNA to increase its activity.

After injecting it into the bloodstream, the combination triggered tumour regression without affecting normal tissues.

Giangrande said making the aptamer-siRNA combination smaller akes it easier to produce large amounts of it synthetically,

The study results appeared in journal Nature Biotechnology. (ANI)

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Aspirin ‘cuts colorectal cancer death risk’

August 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 12 (ANI): Taking aspirin on a regular basis after being diagnosed with colon cancer has been found to reduce the chances of dying from the disease, reveals a new study.

Numerous prospective, observational studies have shown that regular aspirin use is linked to a lower risk of colorectal adenoma (a benign tumour) or cancer.

However, the influence of aspirin on survival after diagnosis of colorectal cancer has been unknown.

Dr. Andrew Chan of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues studied aspirin use in 1,279 men and women with colorectal cancer that had not spread to other parts of the body.

They found that people who took aspirin regularly after their diagnosis were nearly 29 percent less likely to die from their cancer than people who did not take aspirin. These people also were 21 percent less likely to die for any reason while they were in the study lasting more than two decades.

“These results suggest that aspirin may influence the biology of established colorectal tumours in addition to preventing their occurrence,” Chan said.

Aspirin is likely, at least in part, to prevent colorectal neoplasia (tumour growth) through inhibition of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2; an enzyme), which promotes inflammation and cell proliferation, and is overexpressed in the majority of human colorectal cancers, according to background information in the article.

The study has been published in the August 12 issue of JAMA. (ANI)

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3-D mapping breakthrough helps docs remove fist-sized tumour from a woman’s brain

July 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 15 (ANI): Experts at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have successfully removed a fist-sized tumour from the brain of an Indiana woman, using a technology that involves the fusion of four different types of images into a 3-D map of a patient’s brain.

An eight-member team from the Brain Tumor Center at the UC Neuroscience Institute carried out the operation at University Hospital.

“This marks the culmination of one of the most important developments in brain tumor surgery in the last 100 years,” says Dr. John Tew, a neurosurgeon with the Mayfield Clinic, professor of neurosurgery and clinical director of the UC Neuroscience Institute.

For the surgery, Tew and his team fused and installed the multiple brain scans into a surgical guidance computer, whose function is similar to a global positioning system.

They say that the technology revealed the tumour’s relationship to all of the functional centres, electrical pathways and arteries and veins in the patient’s brain, which is why they were able to map out a safe pathway to the tumour.

“This fusion of images is exciting in that it allows us to maximize resection (removal) of the tumour while preserving function for the patient,” says Dr. James Leach, an associate professor of neuroradiology at UC who performed the processing and fusion of images.

Since early 2007, specialists have used the fusion of three types of imaging as a guide to stereotactic surgery-Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that creates detailed pictures of the body by detecting differences in magnetic signals between different types of tissues; functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that creates a series of images that capture blood oxygen levels in parts of the brain that are responsible for movement, perception and cognition; and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) that provides a map of critical white-matter tracts, which facilitate electrical connections between different parts of the brain.

Leach revealed that the latest work added the fusion of computed tomography angiography (CTA), which provides a map of blood vessels-arteries and veins.

“The 3T system allows us to image the functional areas of the brain using various language, motor and vision tasks with the patient in the MRI scanner. The addition of the DTI sequence allows the connections between these areas and other parts of the nervous system to be identified at the same time,” Leach says.

Tew said that the three-dimensional brain-mapping enabled his team to navigate a trajectory through the patient’s brain, and to remove 90 percent of the malignant tumour, an anaplastic astrocytoma, without harming the healthy brain tissue-including the deep nerve-fibre tracts-that surrounded it.

According to the researcher, the patient was talking normally right after surgery, and she was walking the halls and able to take a shower without assistance one day after surgery. he team sought to eradicate the remaining tumour by applying a course of 33 computer-guided, fractionated radiotherapy treatments as a first approach. (ANI)

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Enzyme key to ageing identified

July 11, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 11 (ANI): Scientists from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have identified an enzyme that plays a crucial role in the process of aging.

Lead researcher Dr. Abbe de Vallejo, associate professor of Paediatrics and Immunology, has found that eliminating pregnancy-associated plasma protein A (PAPPA) enzyme increases the lifespan of study mice.

The researcher revealed that PAPPA enzyme has the ability to promote a robust immune system into old age, by maintaining the function of the thymus throughout life.

Thymus is the organ that produces T cells to fight disease and infection. It degenerates with age.

The study showed that PAPPA-knockout mice live at least 30 percent longer, and have significantly lower occurrence of spontaneous tumours than typical mice.

PAPPA controls the availability in tissues of a hormone known as insulin-like growth factor (IGF) that is a promoter of cell division. Hence, IGF is required for normal embryonic and postnatal growth.

IGF is associated with tumour growth, inflammation, and cardiovascular disease in adults.

By deleting PAPPA, the researchers were able to control the availability of IGF in tissues and dampen its many ill effects.

In the thymus, deletion of PAPPA maintained just enough IGF to sustain production of T cells without consuming precursor cells, thereby preventing the degeneration of the thymus.

“Controlling the availability of IGF in the thymus by targeted manipulation of PAPPA could be a way to maintain immune protection throughout life,” de Vallejo said.

“This study has profound implications for the future study of healthy aging and longevity,” de Vallejo added.

The study has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (ANI)

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Scientists unveil prostate cancer ‘homing device’ for drug delivery

July 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 7 (ANI): Purdue University researchers have come up with a new prostate cancer “homing device” that can improve detection, and allow for the first targeted treatment of the disease.

The researchers have revealed that they have synthesized a molecule that finds and penetrates prostate cancer cells, and created imaging agents and therapeutic drugs that can link to the molecule and be carried with it as cargo.

Philip Low, the Ralph C. Corley Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry who led the team, said that a targeted treatment could be much more effective in treating cancer and would greatly reduce the harmful side effects associated with current treatments.

“Currently none of the drugs available to treat prostate cancer are targeted, which means they go everywhere in the body as opposed to only the tumour, and so are quite toxic for the patient,” said Low, who is a member of the Purdue Cancer Center.

“By being able to target only the cancer cells, we could eliminate toxic side effects of treatments. In addition, the ability to target only the cancer cells can greatly improve imaging of the cancer to diagnose the disease, determine if it has spread or is responding to treatment,” Low added.

The Purdue team say that the molecule they have created attaches to prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), a protein that is found on the membrane of more than 90 percent of all prostate cancers.

Low points out that it is also found on the blood vessels of most solid tumours, and may provide a way to cut off the tumour blood supply.

“A lot of new drugs are being designed to destroy the vasculature of solid tumours, and, if they could be linked to this new targeting molecule, we could have a two-pronged attack for prostate cancer. We could not only kill the prostate cancer cells directly, we could also destroy the vasculature that feeds the tumours,” he said.

The researcher says that there also is potential for the targeting molecule to be used to attack the vasculature of solid tumours of other types of cancers.

Animal studies carried out by the researchers have shown an ability to eliminate human prostate cancer cells in mice, without any collateral toxicity in normal tissue.

“The molecule acts like a homing device for prostate cancer. PSMA, which is found only on prostate cancer cells and tumor blood vessels, acts as the homing signal that the molecule targets. The molecule and its cargo go only to cancerous tissue, leaving healthy tissue unharmed,” says Sumith Kularatne, a graduate student in Purdue’s chemistry department and first author of both papers who compared the targeting molecule to a homing device.

He has revealed that the molecule is designed with a specific shape that fits with the protein like a key to a lock. The molecule and its cargo are then carried inside the cell with the protein as it goes through its normal cycle.

A radioimaging application used for body scans is expected to enter clinical trials this fall, and an optical imaging application used to measure prostate cancer cells in blood samples is already in clinical trials.

The findings of the researchers have been described in two research articles published in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics. (ANI)

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How carbohydrates act as tumour suppressor

July 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 7 (ANI): Glycans, the carbohydrates that anchor cells into place, have been found to act as tumour suppressors in breast and prostate cancers, according to scientists at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham).

These specialized complex sugar molecules (glycans) play a critical role in cell adhesion in normal cells, and their decrease or loss leads to increased cell migration by invasive cancer cells and metastasis.

The researchers, led by Dr. Minoru Fukuda, observed that an increase in expression of the enzyme that produces these glycans, B3GnT1, resulted in a significant reduction in tumour activity.

The specialized glycans are capable of binding to laminin, and are attached to the a-DG cell surface protein. This binding facilitates adhesion between epithelial and basement membrane cells and prevents cells from migrating.

The team demonstrated that B3GnT1 controls the synthesis of laminin-binding glycans in concert with the genes LARGE/LARGE2.

Down-regulation of ß3GnT1 reduces the number of glycans, leading to greater movement by invasive cancer cells.

But when the researchers forced aggressive cancer cells to express ß3GnT1, the laminin-binding glycans were restored and tumour formation decreased.

“These results indicate that certain carbohydrates on normal cells and enzymes that synthesize those glycans, such as ß3GnT1, function as tumor suppressors. Upregulation of ß3GnT1 may become a novel way to treat cancer,” said Fukuda.”

The scientists demonstrated that ß3GnT1 plays a key role in forming laminin-binding glycans attached to a-DG, which in turn reduces cancer cell movement.

The study could lead to new understanding of the role that complex carbohydrates play in cancer, and could lead to new directions in the development of therapeutics.

The research has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (ANI)

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