Potential New Therapeutic Target For Breast Cancer
A possible new target for breast cancer therapy comes from the discovery that the Tyk2 protein helps suppress the growth and metastasis of breast tumors, as reported in Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available free online for the next week*. Qifang Zhang and Andrew Larner, Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, VA), and colleagues from VCU, Temple University School of Medicine (Philadelphia, PA), Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland), and Miyazaki University (Japan), present data demonstrating that mice lacking Tyk2 tyrosine kinase that are injected with breast cancer cells exhibit enhanced breast tumor growth and metastasis compared to mice with normal Tyk2 protein expression.
Including HPV Test In Cervical Screenings Saves 3,500 Women From Pointless Tests
According to a new study published in the British Journal of Cancer, including testing for the human papillomavirus (HPV) in cervical screenings reduces over a third of further pointless tests for women. The results are from the primary assessment, led by The Institute of Cancer Research, of the 'Sentinel sites' project, which aims to make HPV testing part of routine cervical screening. More than 10, 000 women, aged between 25 and 64 years who participated in NHS Cervical Screening Program and whose initial smear test had revealed mild or borderline abnormalities in the cervix, were examined in the investigation.
Kidney Transplant Recipients May One Day Not Require Daily Drugs
An immune tolerance treatment that has been 30 years in the making has shown promise in a small study where from 12 kidney transplant patients 8 were successfully weaned off their daily immunosuppressive drugs. As well as freeing patients from lifelong use of drugs, such a protocol could reduce long term side effects and bring substantial health-care savings. Researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine reported their progress on what they describe as a proof-of-concept study, in a letter to the editor published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday.