Oncogene News and Research

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An oncogene is a gene that, when mutated or expressed at high levels, helps turn a normal cell into a tumor cell.

Study: Some breast cancer tumours may not respond to taxane chemotherapy

Some breast cancer tumours may be resistant to a common chemotherapy treatment, suggests recent medical research at the University of Alberta.

28 Mar 2012

Scientists identify new compound that quickly kills HCC cells

Scientists have identified a new compound that rapidly kills hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells, the most common form of liver cancer and fifth most common cancer worldwide, while sparing healthy tissue.

15 Mar 2012

Researchers make significant strides in the study of Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma

Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center's James P. Wilmot Cancer Center have made significant strides in the study of a primary cancer of the liver- Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma (IHCC), also called biliary tract cancer.

8 Mar 2012

Metastatic melanoma patients with specific genetic mutation benefit from vemurafenib

A report published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that the 50 percent of metastatic melanoma patients with a specific genetic mutation benefit from the drug Vemurafenib - increasing median survival from about 6 months to 15.9 months. In patients who responded, the drug stopped cancer progression for a median 6.7 months.

1 Mar 2012

Targeting patient's own dendritic cells may help restore the immune system

Aggressive ovarian tumors begin as malignant cells kept in check by the immune system until, suddenly and unpredictably, they explode into metastatic cancer. New findings from scientists at The Wistar Institute demonstrate that ovarian tumors don't necessarily break "free" of the immune system, rather dendritic cells of the immune system seem to actively support the tumor's escape.

20 Feb 2012

Study details how breast tumors may flip TGF-beta signalling switch

Signals can tell cells to act cancerous, surviving, growing and reproducing out of control. And signals can also tell cells with cancerous characteristics to stop growing or to die. In breast cancer, one tricky signal called TGF-beta does both - sometimes promoting tumors and sometimes suppressing them.

17 Feb 2012

Pyromaker can rapidly sequence cancer-driving mutations

Using precise information about an individual's genetic makeup is becoming increasingly routine for developing tailored treatments for breast, lung, colon and other cancers. But techniques used to identify meaningful gene mutations depend on analyzing sequences of both normal and mutant DNA in tumor samples, a process that can yield ambiguous results. Now, a team of Johns Hopkins researchers says it has developed an easy-to-use online computer software application that can clear up any confusion faster and cheaper than other methods currently used to do the job.

16 Feb 2012

'Targeted' drugs may be effective against lung and colorectal tumors driven by novel gene abnormalities

Novel gene abnormalities discovered in a subpopulation of lung and colorectal tumors could potentially identify patients with a good chance of responding to highly specific "targeted" drugs already in use for treating other cancers, scientists report.

14 Feb 2012

Scientists create new mouse model for medulloblastoma

Scientists at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) developed a new mouse model for studying a devastating childhood brain cancer called medulloblastoma.

14 Feb 2012

Cyclin D1 oncogene may promote chromosomal instability

A team of researchers at Jefferson's Kimmel Cancer Center (KCC) led by Richard G. Pestell, M.D., PhD., FACP, Director of the KCC and Chair of the Department of Cancer Biology, have shown in a study published online Feb. 6 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation that the oncogene cyclin D1 may promote a genetic breakdown known as chromosomal instability (CIN). CIN is a known, yet poorly understood culprit in tumor progression.

7 Feb 2012

Inhibiting MET signaling in glioblastoma has major therapeutic value

A recent discovery by Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) scientists enables the prediction of patient sensitivity to proposed drug therapies for glioblastoma - the most common and most aggressive malignant brain tumor in humans.

7 Feb 2012

Urine-based biomarkers may lead to development of test for high-risk prostate cancer

Initial results of a multicenter study coordinated by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center indicates that two investigational urine-based biomarkers are associated with prostate cancers that are likely to be aggressive and potentially life-threatening among men who take a "watchful waiting," or active-surveillance approach to manage their disease.

3 Feb 2012

Scientists identify molecular switch that controls ATF2's dual functions

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that as many as one in 51 men and women will be diagnosed with melanoma-the deadliest form of skin cancer-at some point during their lifetimes. A research team led by Ze'ev Ronai, Ph.D. at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) is working to unravel the molecular mechanisms underlying the development and progression of this disease in hopes of improving prevention and treatment strategies

3 Feb 2012

Molecular subtypes of lung cancer manifest as different diseases

Different kinds of lung cancer behave in different ways, suggesting they are fundamentally different diseases. According to a University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in Cancer, the official journal of the American Cancer Society, different subgroups of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) show distinct patterns of spread in the body.

3 Feb 2012

Crizotinib can treat ROS1-driven tumors

A report from investigators at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center has defined the role of a recently identified gene abnormality in a deadly form of lung cancer. Tumors driven by rearrangements in the ROS1 gene represent 1 to 2 percent of non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLC), the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S.

1 Feb 2012

Study describes new pharmacological resistance to colon cancer

Doctors and researchers of Hospital del Mar and its research institute, the IMIM, have lead a study describing a new pharmacological resistance to cancer. This new mechanism is a mutation in an oncogene called EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) causing resistance to treatment using a drug called cetuximab, a monoclonal antibody which specifically attacks the EGFR.

23 Jan 2012

Inflammation enhances pancreatic cancer cell progression

Ben Stanger, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and Andrew Rhim, MD, a Gastroenterology Fellow in the Stanger lab, discovered that pancreatic cancer cells in an animal model begin to spread before clinically obvious tumor tissue is detected.

20 Jan 2012

Melanoma drug makes pre-existing cells with RAS mutation grow into skin squamous cell cancers

Patients with metastatic melanoma taking the recently approved drug vemurafenib (Zelboraf) responded well to the twice daily pill, but some of them developed a different, secondary skin cancer.

18 Jan 2012

Scientists identify pathway that activates hepsin on the surface of breast tumor cells

Scientists from the University of Helsinki and from UCSF have exposed a cell pathway that breast tumor cells use to destruct local tissue neighborhood. Cancer cells may use this pathway to free themselves from mammary epithelial tissue architecture, to spread to surrounding tissues. The cell pathway, the researchers found, is a biochemical chain of events leading to activation of a protein-cleaving enzyme on the surface of the tumor cells.

18 Jan 2012

Study shows how to stop brain cancer cell proliferation and migration

Brain cancer is hard to treat: it's not only strong enough to resist most chemotherapies, but also nimble enough to migrate away from radiation or surgery to regrow elsewhere. New research at the University of Colorado Cancer Center shows how to stop both.

18 Jan 2012