Cancer costs US more than $156 billion annually, with drugs a leading expense

Care for the 15 most prevalent types of cancer in the U.S. cost approximately $156.2 billion in 2018, according to a team researchers. The team also found that medication was the biggest expense and that medication expense for breast, lung, lymphoma and colorectal cancers incurred the most costs.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Protecting the ozone layer is delivering vast health benefits

An international agreement to protect the ozone layer is expected to prevent 443 million cases of skin cancer and 63 million cataract cases for people born in the United States through the end of this century, according to new research. The research team developed a computer modeling approach that revealed the effect of the Montreal Protocol and subsequent amendments on stratospheric ozone, the associated reductions in ultraviolet radiation, and the resulting health benefits.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Common diabetes drug promising against rare childhood brain tumor in laboratory studies

Metformin, a drug commonly prescribed against diabetes, holds promise against a rare type of childhood brain tumor in laboratory studies, an international team of researchers.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Weighing cancer cells to personalize drug choices

Researchers have developed a new way to determine whether individual patients will respond to a specific cancer drug or not. This kind of test could help doctors to choose alternative therapies for patients who don’t respond to the therapies normally used to treat their cancer.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

New way to image whole organisms in 3D brings key skin color pigment into focus

To understand the biological underpinnings of skin and hair pigmentation and related diseases such as albinism or melanoma, scientists and doctors need quantitative, three-dimensional information about the architecture, content and location of pigment cells. Researchers have developed a new technique that allows scientists to visualize every cell containing melanin pigment in 3D, in whole zebrafish.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Super-enhancers: The villain fueling certain cancers

Researchers identified a small RNA molecule called miR-766-5p that reduces expression of MYC, a critical cancer-promoting gene. This microRNA reduces levels of proteins CBP and BRD4, which are both involved in super-enhancer (SE) formation. SEs form in areas of DNA that can fuel MYC expression and tumor progression. This study provides strong evidence for developing miR-766-5p as a novel therapeutic to treat MYC-driven cancers.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Cancer chemotherapy drug reverses Alzheimer’s symptoms in mice

A drug commonly used to treat cancer can restore memory and cognitive function in mice that display symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, new research has found. The drug, Axitinib, inhibits growth of new blood vessels in the brain — a feature shared by both cancer tumors and Alzheimer’s disease. This hallmark represents a new target for Alzheimer’s therapies. Mice that underwent the therapy not only exhibited a reduction in blood vessels and other Alzheimer’s markers in their brains, they also performed remarkably well in tests designed to measure learning and memory.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Calculating the path of cancer

Scientists are using a new mathematical tool to predict how combinations of genetic mutations cause different types of tumors.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

New mouse model unlocks drug testing of hormone-sensitive human breast cancer

Scientists have created mice with a hormone profile that causes growth and metastatic spread of implanted human breast tumors. Results show that the team created a new mouse breed, called NSG-Pro, that produces levels of human prolactin similar to those in patients with metastatic estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

The immune system’s double agents

A new study examined the development of a glioblastoma cancerous tumor in animal models with a normal immune system, in order to best simulate the development of the tumor in humans.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Powerful technique details brain tumors’ formidable resiliency

A team led by researchers  has profiled in unprecedented detail thousands of individual cells sampled from patients‘ brain tumors. The findings, along with the methods developed to obtain those findings, represent a significant advance in cancer research, and ultimately may lead to better ways of detecting, monitoring and treating cancers.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Most cases of never-smokers’ lung cancer treatable with mutation-targeting drugs

Despite smoking’s well-known role in causing lung cancer, a significant number of patients who develop lung tumors have never smoked. While scientists are still working to understand what spurs cancer in so-called ’never-smokers,‘ a study suggests that 78% to 92% of lung cancers in patients who have never smoked can be treated with precision drugs already approved by the Food and Drug Administration to target specific mutations in a patient’s tumor.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Looking beyond DNA to see cancer with new clarity

Researchers have mapped out how hundreds of mutations involved in two types of cancer affect the activity of proteins that are the ultimate actors behind the disease. The work points the way to identifying new precision treatments that may avoid the side effects common with much current chemotherapy.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Safer treatment for deep-seated tumors

Scientists have detailed the effects of copper cysteamine, a next-generation cancer photo-drug.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Scientists reverse pancreatic cancer progression in ‘time machine’ made of human cells

What makes pancreatic cancer so deadly is its covert and quick spread. Now, a ‚time machine‘ has shown a way to reverse the course of cancer before it spreads throughout the pancreas.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

New analytical technique helps researchers spot subtle differences in subcellular chemistry

Researchers can now rapidly isolate and chemically characterize individual organelles within cells. The new technique tests the limits of analytical chemistry and rapidly reveals the chemical composition of organelles that control biological growth, development and disease.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Cell labelling method from microscopy adapted for use in whole-body imaging

Scientist have utilized so-called SNAP-tag technology to radioactively label cells in living organisms. In a proof-of-principle study they developed a SNAP-tag substrate equipped with the radioactive signal emitter fluorine-18 and used it to make tumor cells in the bodies of mice visible in PET images. The labeling method, already established in microscopy, opens up the prospect of studying cells with different imaging techniques and at different temporal stages — for example, when inflammation begins, continues and resolves again. This may help reveal more about how the functions of individual cells and entire organs are interconnected.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

New nanoparticle developed for intravenous cancer immunotherapy

Cancer immunotherapy seeks to turn ‚cold‘ tumors into ‚hot‘ tumors — those that respond to immunotherapy — by awakening and enlisting the body’s own immune system.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Glioma subtype may hold the secret to the success of immunotherapies

A common mutation in gliomas sensitizes them to immunotherapy, a finding which researchers believe could have broader therapeutic implications for all glioma patients.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

How high-fat diets allow cancer cells to go unnoticed

The immune system relies on cell surface tags to recognize cancer cells. Researchers discovered mice who ate high-fat diets produced less of these tags on their intestinal cells, suppressing the ability of immune cells to identify and eliminate intestinal tumors. The high-fat diet also reduced the presence of certain bacteria in the mice’s gut, which normally helps maintain the production of these tags.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Counting cells may shed light on how cancer spreads

Engineers developed a technique that allows them to measure the generation rate and half-life of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in mice.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Targeting a rare secondary cancer in children

Known as pediatric radiation-induced high-grade gliomas (RIGs), this specific type of brain tumor is caused by cranial radiation therapy for other cancers, most often brain cancers. They account for nearly 4% of all childhood brain tumor deaths, but there have not been many studies on RIGs and how to treat them.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

‘Research autopsy’ enable scientists study why certain cancer therapies stop working

A new research study turns cancer scientists into molecular detectives, searching for clues for why certain cancers are able to spread and evolve by studying tissues collected within hours of death.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Sunlight exposure guidelines may need to be revised

Previously published solar exposure guidelines for optimal vitamin D synthesis based on a study of skin samples may need to be revised.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Discovery of mechanics of drug targets for COVID-19

Researchers have discovered the working mechanism of potential drug targets for various diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and even COVID-19. The findings uncover the inner workings of cell receptors that are involved in cancer progression and inflammatory diseases.

Quelle: Sciencedaily