Cancer News and Research

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Cancer begins in your cells, which are the building blocks of your body. Normally, your body forms new cells as you need them, replacing old cells that die. Sometimes this process goes wrong. New cells grow even when you don't need them, and old cells don't die when they should. These extra cells can form a mass called a tumor. Tumors can be benign or malignant. Benign tumors aren't cancer while malignant ones are. Cells from malignant tumors can invade nearby tissues. They can also break away and spread to other parts of the body.

New LI383 molecule can help treat opioid-related disorders

A novel molecule LIH383 developed by scientists at the Luxembourg Institute of Health binds to and inhibits a formerly unknown opioid receptor in the brain.

22 Jun 2020

Biologists Unravel Tangled Mystery Of Plant Cell Growth

Scientists now understand how a protein called TANGLED1 can lead to accurate cell division in plants.

22 Jun 2020

Exploiting Viruses To Attack Cancer Cells

An adenovirus is now better able to target and kill cancer cells due to the addition of an RNA stabilizing element.

22 Jun 2020

Researchers unlock a weakness in common type of cancer cells

Like any cells in the body, cancer cells need sugar - namely glucose - to fuel cell proliferation and growth. Cancer cells in particular metabolize glucose at a much higher rate than normal cells.

19 Jun 2020

Discovery could lead to a new toolset for cancer drug development

In the watery inside of a cell, complex processes take place in tiny functional compartments called organelles. Energy-producing mitochondria are organelles, as is the frilly golgi apparatus, which helps to transport cellular materials. Both of these compartments are bound by thin membranes.

19 Jun 2020

Using CAR T cells to target senescence-related diseases

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells have transformed the treatment of refractory blood cancers. These genetically engineered immune cells seek out and destroy cancer cells with precision.

19 Jun 2020

Vitamin D shows promise to alleviate side effects of chemotherapy

As many cancer patients will confirm, the chemotherapy prescribed to kill the disease is often more debilitating than the cancer itself, with a range of horrendous side effects.

19 Jun 2020

New system of gene editing allows for targeted, super-fast DNA repair

In a series of experiments using human cancer cell lines, scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have successfully used light as a trigger to make precise cuts in genomic material rapidly, using a molecular scalpel known as CRISPR, and observe how specialized cell proteins repair the exact spot where the gene was cut.

18 Jun 2020

Study shows how viruses evade antiviral defenses

According to a new study, researchers have identified a novel antiviral defense system that can possibly be used for treating several viral infections.

17 Jun 2020

Loss of lipid-regulating protein drives prostate cancer metastasis

Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers from the Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences identified a lipid-regulating protein that conveys what the researchers describe as "superpowers" onto prostate cancer cells, causing them to aggressively spread.

17 Jun 2020

New mechanism shows promise for treating certain congenital disorders

Scientists have discovered a major mechanism in the inactivation of X chromosomes, an event that may hold clues to develop treatments for congenital disorders.

16 Jun 2020

Skeletal muscles help to keep the immune system functional in chronic diseases

In the fight against cancer or chronic infections, the immune system must be active over long periods of time.

16 Jun 2020

Cardiac organoids that closely mimic physiological conditions during a heart attack

In the U.S., someone has a heart attack every 40 seconds, and yet researchers have not had a model that fully mimics what occurs in the human heart after a heart attack.

12 Jun 2020

Excessive degradation of mitochondria causes severe disease in children

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have discovered that excessive degradation of the power plants of our cells plays an important role in the onset of mitochondrial disease in children.

12 Jun 2020

New project to make better fluorescent tags turns into a method to kill tumors

A Rice University lab's project to make better fluorescent tags has turned into a method to kill tumors. Switching one atom in the tag does the trick.

12 Jun 2020

Deleting a key gene to create an immune cell with stronger anti-tumor activity

Using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and deleting a key gene, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have created natural killer cells -- a type of immune cell -- with measurably stronger activity against a form of leukemia, both in vivo and in vitro.

From UC San Diego 12 Jun 2020

Baylor researchers uncover a novel mechanism that triggers cellular immune response

Viruses and other disease-causing microbes influence the type of immune response their hosts will develop against them. In some cases, the predominant response involves antibodies, proteins made by the immune system that specifically recognize parts of the invading microbe and mediate its destruction.

12 Jun 2020