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SENP1 prevents STAT5 from becoming trapped in nucleus

When SUMO grips STAT5, a protein that activates genes, it blocks the healthy embryonic development of immune B cells and T cells unless its nemesis breaks the hold, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports today in Molecular Cell.

30 Jan 2012

Cancer Research UK opens first AT9283 trial to treat childhood leukaemia

Cancer Research UK's Drug Development Office has opened the first trial of a new type of drug to treat children aged from six months to 18 years with acute leukaemia, who are no longer responding to treatment.

27 Jan 2012

Scientists connect two signature characteristics of pancreatic cancer

Scientists have connected two signature characteristics of pancreatic cancer, identifying a self-perpetuating "vicious cycle" of molecular activity and a new potential target for drugs to treat one of the most lehal forms of cancer.

27 Jan 2012

Boehringer Ingelheim initiates two afatinib phase III trials in head and neck cancer

Boehringer Ingelheim announced today the initiation of two phase III clinical trials, LUX-Head & Neck 1 and LUX-Head & Neck 2. These trials evaluate afatinib in patients with metastatic and recurrent head and neck cancer, and in patients with locally advanced disease, respectively.

27 Jan 2012

Celgene signs definitive merger agreement to acquire Avila

Celgene Corporation and Avila Therapeutics, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company developing targeted covalent drugs that treat diseases through protein silencing, today announced a definitive merger agreement under which Celgene Corporation will acquire Avila Therapeutics, Inc.

26 Jan 2012

Breakthroughs in Alzheimer’s disease research

Researchers are closer to understanding Alzheimer’s disease using a new stem cell technique. They have successfully replicated Alzheimer’s disease neurons with stem cells for the first time.

26 Jan 2012

Aphios receives NIH's Phase II SBIR grant to develop APH-0703 for AD

Aphios Corporation has received a Phase II SBIR grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) amounting to $2.4 million over two years. The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the NIH, awarded the grant to the Aphios Corporation to develop an "Alzheimer's Disease Therapeutic."

24 Jan 2012

Positive preliminary data from Exelixis' cabozantinib phase 2 trial on HCC

Exelixis, Inc. today reported positive preliminary data from the cohort of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients participating in the ongoing phase 2 randomized discontinuation trial (RDT) of cabozantinib.

20 Jan 2012

Study examines drug resistance in ALK positive lung cancer

Scientists from the University of Colorado Cancer Center have once again advanced the treatment of a specific kind of lung cancer. The team has documented how anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) becomes resistant to a drug targeting the abnormal protein in the cancer. It's the first time scientists have analyzed the frequency and type of drug resistance in ALK positive patients taking crizotinib.

19 Jan 2012

Experimental drug helps patients with advanced colon cancer

According to results from a new clinical trial, an experimental cancer drug regorafenib appears to extend survival slightly in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Regorafenib is a so-called multikinase inhibitor, which targets several of the ways cancer develops and grows, researchers said.

19 Jan 2012

TB associated with EGFR mutations in patients with lung adenocarcinoma

Tuberculosis (TB) has been suspected to increase a person's risk of lung cancer because the pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis can induce genetic damage. However, direct evidence of specific genetic changes and the disease have not been extensively reported.

19 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 explains how cells regulate their bonds during new blood vessel development

New research explains how cells regulate their bonds during the development of new blood vessels. For the first time, the role of the protein Raf-1 in determining the strength of the bond between cells has been shown.

18 Jan 2012

Neuronal energy deficits may contribute to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Turning off a protein that helps cells balance energy increases animal mobility and reduces the death of nerve cells that control movement in animal models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), according to a study in the January 18 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The findings may one day guide new directions for the treatment of the progressive neurodegenerative disorder, for which there is currently no cure.

18 Jan 2012

Scientists identify hepsin protein's role in breast cancer

Cancers rarely are deadly unless they evolve the ability to grow beyond the tissues in which they first arise. Normally, cells -- even early-stage tumor cells -- are tethered to scaffolding that helps to restrain any destructive tendencies. But scientists from the University of Helsinki, Finland, and from UCSF have identified a cleaver-wielding protein that frees some tumor cells, allowing them to further misbehave.

18 Jan 2012

Regorafenib lengthens lives of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer

An investigational drug called regorafenib slowed the progression of tumors and lengthened the lives of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, an international phase III clinical trial found. The findings were presented today at the Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco by Mayo Clinic oncologist Axel Grothey, M.D., principal investigator of the trial in the United States.

17 Jan 2012

Survey reveals high interest in Xalkori among medical oncologists

According to survey results gathered from 80 Medical Oncologists in the United States there is an extreme interest in Xalkori, with 75% of respondents stating a high interest in prescribing the product, virtually no physicians stating they have low interest in prescribing the therapy.

13 Jan 2012

Erlotinib better for treatment of non-small cell lung cancers

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have shown that DNA changes in a gene that drives the growth of a form of lung cancer can make the cancer's cells resistant to cancer drugs.

11 Jan 2012

Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation names 18 new Fellows

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on supporting innovative early career researchers, named 18 new Damon Runyon Fellows at its fall Fellowship Award Committee review.

11 Jan 2012

BerGenBio completes $8.8M Series A financing round

BerGenBio AS, an emerging oncology biopharma company, today announced it has completed an $8.8 million Series A financing round. The financing will be used primarily to take lead compound BGB324 into clinical trials and to develop a companion diagnostic.

9 Jan 2012