When Fishel and Kolodner heard of the accumulation of mutations in
cancer cells from patients with familial colon cancer, they suspected that the gene responsible would be similar to the bacterial and yeast genes they had studied.
By matching normal and
cancer cells from a patient, we can now study the differences — what molecules are key to tumor development and growth, and, ultimately, match treatments that might disable this cancer,» says the study's senior investigator, associate professor of pathology, Xuefeng Liu, MD, a member of the Center for Cell Reprogramming (CCR) at Georgetown University Medical Center.
Not exact matches
Consider: Last year alone, the FDA approved two treatments,
from Novartis and Gilead, that literally reengineer
patients» immune T -
cells to target and destroy blood
cancers.
Researchers
from the Sichuan University in Chengdu inserted the re-engineered
cells into a lung
cancer patient participating in a clinical trial at the West China Hospital on October 28th, according to Nature.
Speaking of Novartis — the company's experimental CTL019, which is expected to be the first approved drug in a revolutionary new
cancer treatment space that turns the body's own immune
cells into
cancer - killers, is already facing some apprehension
from doctors and
patient groups who are worried about its eventual pricing.
This new kind of approach to fighting blood
cancers is truly personalized; immune T -
cells are extracted
from patients, genetically tinkered to home in on an destroy cancerous
cells, multiplied in a lab, and then jolted back into the
patient's body within about two weeks.
Lab - grown tissues derived
from patients» stem
cells may also allow researchers to screen drugs and test their effectiveness on diseases like
cancer.
And using
cells from someone other than the
cancer patient being treated might trigger an immune response against the foreign
cells.
In the March 22 online issue of
Cancer Research, scientists explained how they injected triple negative breast cancer stem cells from patients into
Cancer Research, scientists explained how they injected triple negative breast
cancer stem cells from patients into
cancer stem
cells from patients into mice.
They also determined that blocking the enzyme reduces multiple myeloma regeneration in experimental models derived
from patient cancer cells.
However, for
patients with lymphoma, it may be a rather different story, as new research
from the University of Copenhagen shows that toxins in the staphylococcus bacteria help
cancer cells gain control over healthy
cells.
The study also suggests that targeting the machinery that makes
cells mobile, rather than targeting the tissue - clearing process — which has been tested in
patients but has not been very effective — may be a better treatment strategy to stop
cancers from spreading.
Novel abnormalities in the FGFR gene, called FGFR fusions, were identified in a spectrum of
cancers, and preliminary results with
cancer cells harboring FGFR fusions suggested that some patients with these cancers may benefit from treatment with FGFR inhibitor drugs, according to data published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Res
cancer cells harboring FGFR fusions suggested that some
patients with these
cancers may benefit
from treatment with FGFR inhibitor drugs, according to data published in
Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Res
Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for
Cancer Res
Cancer Research.
HBI member V. Wee Yong, PhD and research associate Susobhan Sarkar, PhD, and their team including researchers
from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences and the university's Southern Alberta
Cancer Research Institute, looked at human brain tumor samples and discovered that specialized immune
cells in brain tumor
patients are compromised.
The results of the empirical study show a clear distinction between the damage to the white blood
cells from patients with
cancer, with pre-cancerous conditions and
from healthy
patients.
Researchers at Dana - Farber / Boston Children's
Cancer and Blood Disorders Center report promising outcomes
from a clinical trial with
patients with a rare form of bone marrow failure who received a hematopoietic stem
cell transplant (HSCT) after pre-treatment with immunosuppressive drugs only.
«If you give
patients immune
cells to eradicate any remaining
cancer cells that might be present,» he says, «those immune
cells would not be prevented
from doing their job by ongoing immune suppression drugs that are being used in
patients treated with conventional transplant approaches.»
From a simple blood draw, the test reads the DNA of the
patient's immune repertoire to find the immune
cell barcodes associated with the
cancer.
By promoting DNA demethylation, high - dose vitamin C treatment induced stem
cells to mature, and also suppressed the growth of leukemia
cancer stem
cells from human
patients implanted in mice.
Pre-clinical studies have shown it to be effective in eliminating a number of different kinds of
cancers cells, including
cancer stem
cells from human breast
cancer patient biopsies.
Fat
cells cultured
from the body mass index of a morbidly obese
patient cause multiple myeloma
cells to anchor to a much greater extent than normal
cells and produce a significantly larger number of blood vessels to sustain the
cancer cells.
Dr. Jochen Maurer and his research group were able to cultivate several
cancer stem
cell lines
from triple receptor - negative breast
cancer that are excellent representations of the original tumors they isolated
from the
patients.
The researchers isolated bacteria
from the tumors of pancreatic
cancer patients and tested how they affect the sensitivity of pancreatic
cancer cells to gemcitabine, a chemotherapy drug.
Patricia McGowan of University College Dublin, Ireland, treated triple - negative
cells taken
from seven
patients with a compound that inhibits receptors important for the
cell division and spread of this form of
cancer.
Whether investigating fat
cells, immunotherapy or use of the CRISPR - Cas 9 gene - editing tool, which a federal panel recently approved for a select number of
patients suffering
from three types of
cancers, including multiple myeloma, approaches beyond attacking
cancer cells are needed in the fight against many
cancers.
Shown here is a cluster of circulating tumor
cells (red)
from a
patient with breast
cancer.
Porter and June are now participating in a new trial, funded by the National
Cancer Institute, that will administer about a dozen
patients a fifty - fifty mixture of
cells from the Penn and Sloan - Kettering groups.
He then evaluated the levels of specific microRNAs in populations of highly metastatic, compared to poorly metastatic,
cancer cells taken
from the same
patient.
In this study, researchers took
cells from patients with blood
cancer MDS and turned them into stem
cells to study the deletions of human chromosome 7 often associated with this disease.
In a process called cellular reprogramming, researchers at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have taken mature blood
cells from patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and reprogrammed them back into iPSCs to study the genetic origins of this rare blood
cancer.
Until recently, Ain was renowned for a highly prized repository of 18 immortal
cancer cell lines, which he developed by harvesting tissue
from his
patients» tumors after removal, carefully culturing them to everlasting life in vials.
Spearheaded by first author Christopher McNair, PhD, a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Knudsen, the study undertook an extensive analysis of tumor samples and
cell - free DNA samples
from patients with advanced, lethal - stage prostate
cancer.
They found out that TiY is capable of distinguishing TICs
from non-TICs in various human lung
cancer cell lines and
patient - derived lung tumors.
Using tumor samples
from a
patient, they do lab tests to determine which substances can first make the different types of
cancer cells uniform and then effectively kill them.
By assessing the survival of the
cells that engulf the particles and measuring the levels of red or green light that they emitted, the researchers determined which formulation of particles performed best, then tested that formulation in mice with human brain
cancer derived
from their
patients.
The initial experiments made use of
cancer cells that Quiñones - Hinojosa and his team removed
from willing
patients and grew in the laboratory until they formed little spheres of
cells, termed oncospheres, likely to be the most resistant to chemotherapy and radiation, and capable of creating new tumors.
Now a team of researchers in China has developed a new microfluidic chip that can quickly and efficiently segregate and capture live circulating tumor
cells (CTCs)
from a
patient's blood, with potential applications for
cancer screenings and treatment assessments.
For this study, Nakano and his collaborators used
cancer cells from 40
patients with high - grade gliomas, focusing on tumor
cells with a stem -
cell signature.
From tissue and cell samples from five glioblastoma patients, the scientists obtained 33 individual cancer cells capable of reproduction, which grew into very different tumors in the
From tissue and
cell samples
from five glioblastoma patients, the scientists obtained 33 individual cancer cells capable of reproduction, which grew into very different tumors in the
from five glioblastoma
patients, the scientists obtained 33 individual
cancer cells capable of reproduction, which grew into very different tumors in the lab.
A drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for melanoma in combination with a common cholesterol - lowering drug may show promise in controlling
cancer growth in
patients with non-small
cell lung
cancer (NSCLC), according to new research
from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
This study shows that the mesenchymal subtype is the most aggressive subtype, that it has the poorest prognosis among affected
patients, and that
cancer stem
cells isolated
from the mesenchymal subtype have significantly higher levels of the enzyme ALDH1A3 compared with the proneural subtype.
Apart
from patient testimonials and a few preliminary studies in tumor
cell lines and in mice, critics say, there is no evidence of the safety or efficacy of the compound, popularly known as the «
cancer pill» or «fosfo.»
«FDG PET shows tumor DNA levels in blood are linked to NSCLC aggressiveness: Insights derived
from FDG PET could improve treatment selection for
patients with advanced non-small
cell lung
cancer.»
To make the vaccine,
cancer cells are harvested
from a tumor after surgery and stripped of their proteins; then those proteins are cultured with dendritic
cells, a subclass of white blood
cells, drawn
from the
patient's blood.
He did, however, publish a paper last year documenting a study in which he infused three
cancer patients with white blood
cells from young donors who had been injected with G - CSF.
A study combining tumor
cells from patients with breast
cancer with a laboratory model of blood vessel lining provides the most compelling evidence so far that a specific trio of
cells is required for the spread of breast
cancer.
The time needed for breast
cancer metastases (secondary lesions caused by
cells that have escaped
from the original tumour) to develop varies between
patients, and little is known about the mechanisms that govern latency (the dormant state of
cells that have already spread through the body).
Fine got federal approval this year to try such a drug screen on one
patient whom he describes as «well - connected,» creating an organoid
from her
cells and adding bits of her tumor to it in hopes of throwing drug after drug at it until one vanquished the organoid's
cancer.
This analysis, done on separate samples
from the same
patient, revealed that many of the affected genes confer advantages to
cancer cells by, for example, enhancing
cell migration or resistance to chemotherapy.
Nana - Sinkam and his colleagues examined lung - tumor samples
from 81
patients with stage - 1 nonsmall -
cell lung
cancer and tumor -
cell lines.