News by Subject Medicine & Health

Mutations in RAS proteins initiate many of the most aggressive tumors, and the search for pharmacological inhibitors of these proteins has become a priority in the battle against cancer. Michail Steklov, Francesca Baietti, and colleagues from the Anna Sablina lab (VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology) identified LZTR1 as an evolutionarily conserved component of the RAS pathway.

A large American Cancer Society study links social isolation with a higher risk of death from all causes combined and heart disease for all races studied, and with increased cancer mortality in white men and women.

Screening Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved compounds for their ability to stop cancer growth in the lab led to the finding that the drug flunarizine can slow down the growth of triple-negative breast cancer in an animal model of the disease.

UC San Francisco researchers have devised a CRISPR-based system called SLICE, which will allow scientists to rapidly assess the function of each and every gene in 'primary' immune cells -- those drawn directly from patients. The new method, described in the Nov. 15 issue of Cell, provides researchers with a powerful tool that will guide their decision-making when determining how best to engineer immune cells to fight cancer and a host of other diseases.

Results published today in JAMA Oncology suggest post-operative radiation and hormone therapy, before cancer recurrence, as a new prostate cancer treatment option for men with a Gleason Score of 9 or 10.

Anti-malaria drugs known as chloroquines have been repurposed to treat cancer for decades, but until now no one knew exactly what the chloroquines were targeting when they attack a tumor. Now, researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania say they have identified that target -- an enzyme called PPT1.