Researchers Identify Genetic Markers Of Drug Sensitivity In Cancer Cells
In the largest study of its kind, researchers have profiled genetic changes in cancer with drug sensitivity in order to develop a personalised approach to cancer treatments. The study is published in Nature on Thursday 29 March 2012. The team uncovered hundreds of associations between mutations in cancer genes and sensitivity to anticancer drugs. One of the key responses the team found was that cells from a childhood bone cancer, Ewing's sarcoma, respond to a drug that is currently used in the treatment of breast and ovarian cancers.
Study Shows Single Antibody Shrinks Variety Of Human Tumors Transplanted Into Mice
Human tumors transplanted into laboratory mice disappeared or shrank when scientists treated the animals with a single antibody, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine. The antibody works by masking a protein flag on cancer cells that protects them from macrophages and other cells in the immune system. The scientists achieved the findings with human breast, ovarian, colon, bladder, brain, liver and prostate cancer samples. It is the first antibody treatment shown to be broadly effective against a variety of human solid tumors, and the dramatic response - including some overt cures in the laboratory animals - has the investigators eager to begin phase-1 and -2 human clinical trials within the next two years.
Study Of Kidney Stones In Fruit Flies May Hold Key To Treatment For Humans
Research on kidney stones in fruit flies may hold the key to developing a treatment that could someday stop the formation of kidney stones in humans, a team from Mayo Clinic and the University of Glasgow found. They recently presented their findings at the Genetics Society of America annual meeting. "The kidney tubule of a fruit fly is easy to study because it is transparent and accessible, " says physiologist Michael F. Romero, Ph.D. of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He said researchers are now able to see new stones at the moment of formation.