Current Views On Cancer Stem Cells Contradicted By New Findings In Breast Cancer
New findings in breast cancer research by an international team of scientists contradict the prevailing belief that only basal-like cells with stem cell qualities can form invasive tumors. Research led by Ole William Petersen at the University of Copenhagen (CU) and Mina Bissell of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and has shown that luminal-like cells with no detectable stem cell qualities can generate larger tumors than their basal-like counterparts. This may hold important implications for the diagnosis and the treatment of breast cancer as well as future personalized cancer medicine.
Improving The Delivery Of Standard Chemotherapy Drugs By Normalizing Tumor Blood Vessels
Combining two strategies designed to improve the results of cancer treatment - antiangiogenesis drugs and nanomedicines - may only be successful if the smallest nanomedicines are used. A new study from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers, appearing in Nature Nanotechnology, finds that normalizing blood vessels within tumors, which improves the delivery of standard chemotherapy drugs, can block the delivery of larger nanotherapy molecules. "We found that vascular normalization only increases the delivery of the smallest nanomedicines to cancer cells, " says Vikash P.
Dialysis Patients' Mental Health Linked To Heart Health And Longevity
A study in the new issue of Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN) reveals that dialysis patients whose mental health progressively deteriorates, have a higher risk of developing heart problems and premature death. It is proven that poor mental health can have an impact on the heart's health. Ea Wha Kang, MD, PhD, from the Ilsan Hospital in Gyeonggi-do, Korea and Mark Unruh, MD, from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and their team decided to examine whether changes in dialysis patients' mental health is associated with their heart health and longevity, as heart disease is the leading cause of mortality in patients suffering from kidney disease, and whether caring for kidney disease patients' mental health may help prevent heart complications and even death.