Strong sensitivity to bitter tastes tied to higher cancer risk A recent study has started to investigate the link between sensitivity to better tastes and the risk of cancer. It was conducted by researchers at the College of Agricultural Sciences of Pennsylvania State University in State College alongside a team from Leeds University in the United…
Study finds melanoma biomarkers predicting checkpoint blocker response Scientists at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC) have identified biomarkers in melanoma that could help tailor immunotherapy treatments to maximize the benefits for patients while reducing the likelihood of severe side effects. While the utility of these biomarkers needs to be validated in future clinical trials,…
100 miles to win the fight against pancreatic cancer The 23 year old maths teacher will be peddling in memory of her beloved grandfather, Robert Finlay Phillip, who sadly passed from pancreatic cancer in 2008. Yolanda, who has been training with her dad, has cycled between 60-120 miles a week in preparation for the event.…
ICR part of major MedTech commercialization program The Institute of Cancer Research, London, is taking part in a major new initiative to drive forward world-class university commercialization across the country, and encourage collaboration between higher education institutions. The MedTech SuperConnector program links up academic institutions, their technology transfer offices, science business incubators, industry, NHS patients, and other…
Smart molecule aids natural cancer defenses Cancer cells secrete signaling proteins that prevent immune cells called macrophages from attacking tumors. Ashish Kulkarni at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Shiladitya Sengupta at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and their colleagues sought to create a molecular mechanism that could shut down these defenses. The…
Young people at heart of new project tackling childhood obesity The new project, called CO-CREATE, will work with young people to create, inform and disseminate policies to tackle obesity among their peers. A consortium of the 14 international research and advocacy organisations involved in the project will meet in Oslo, Norway, on 27–28 June to kick…
Warning! Helpful CRISPR Could Cause Cancer! June 11, 2018 You know already about the promise for CRISPR-Cas9 — it might revolutionize fields from medicine to agriculture. It might also eventually cause tumors. That’s the takeaway from two new studies, published Monday in Nature Medicine. Both studies, one by Novartis and the other by the Karolinska Institute, focus on the gene p53, known to play a…
Immune Cells could Lead to Resistance to Prostate Cancer Treatment Prostate cancer causes more than 300,000 deaths annually worldwide and is one of the most common causes of cancer-linked mortality in men. In 1941, the demonstration that the condition regressed after surgical castration established a link between prostate-cancer growth and androgens — the hormones, such…
Researchers try to make cancer CAR-T cell therapies safer and more effective JUNE 27, 2018 This wasn’t 15-year-old Connor McMahon’s first time in the hospital. But the 107° fever he’d been running for three days had his dad frightened. The teen was hallucinating, talking gibberish and spouting curses. “I thought he was going to die,” says…
MGMT Methylation and Glioma Jun 29, 2018 A DNA-level biomarker may be helpful in predicting survival outcomes in patients with high-risk, low-grade gliomas, a new study suggests. The NRG Oncology/ Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) collaborative clinical trials group reports that MGMT promoter methylation has the potential to be used as an independent prognostic biomarker in World…