Researchers have identified a molecular pathway that plays a critical role in the growth of blood vessels. The finding not only offers an important insight into the development of the vascular system during embryonic development but suggests a potential target for inhibiting the blood vessels that fuel cancers, diabetic eye complications and atherosclerosis, the researchers say.
For the first time, scientists have linked the all-too-human preference for a food — chocolate — to a specific, chemical signature that may be programmed into the metabolic system and is detectable by laboratory tests. The signature reads ‘chocolate lover’ in some people and indifference to the popular sweet in others, the researchers say.
Although defects in the “breast cancer gene,” BRCA1, have been known for years to increase the risk for breast cancer, exactly how it can lead to tumor growth has remained a mystery. In the October 15, 2007, issue of the journal Cancer Research, scientists from the University of Chicago and Kyoto University, Japan, suggest that a mechanism that normally repairs damaged DNA may function abnormally in BRCA1 carriers leading to one type of poor-prognosis breast cancer.
A person is 100 times more likely to get cancer at age 65 than at age 35. But new research reported today in the journal Nature Genetics identifies naturally occurring processes that allow many genes to both slow aging and protect against cancer in the much-studied C. elegans roundworm.
Through the generous support of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is pleased to announce the inaugural recipients of the 2007 BCRF-AACR Grants in Translational Breast Cancer Research. These grants provide direct support for innovative breast cancer research projects designed to accelerate the discovery, development, and application of new ways to treat breast cancer, or for preclinical research with direct therapeutic implications.
Cancer researchers have long worked to understand why some prostate cancers recur after the use of therapies designed to stop the production of testosterone and other androgens that fuel cancer cell growth. New research has now detected that androgen-synthesizing proteins are present within cancer cells, which suggests that cancer cells may develop the capacity to produce their own androgens.
Through the generous philanthropic support of the Littlefield 2000 Trust, the American Association for Cancer Research is pleased to announce four recipients of the 2007 Jeannik M. Littlefield-AACR Grants for Metastatic Colon Cancer Research, totaling $2.7 million. Now in its second year, this competitive grant program supports the cutting-edge research of top scientists from around the world, working to accelerate the discovery and development of new treatments for metastatic colon cancer.
Women who overcome breast cancer have every reason to celebrate. But a heart filled with joy may also be a heart damaged by life-saving cancer therapies, a growing body of research shows.
A tumor-blocking protein previously implicated in prostate and breast cancer development may also be behind the most aggressive type of pancreatic cancer. Researchers have discovered that the protein pp32 — which normally applies the brakes on a cancer-causing gene — is missing in an aggressive form of pancreatic cancer. Though the work is preliminary, the scientists say, the absent protein could eventually become a marker for the disease and a potential drug target.
Obese people are six times as likely to develop gullet (oesophageal) cancer as people of ‘healthy’ weight, shows research published ahead of print in the journal Gut.