For a number of cancers, including neuroblastoma (the second most common tumor in children), tumor infiltration by a subset of immune cells known as V-alpha-24-invariant NKT cells is associated with a favorable outcome. But how these cells have an anticancer effect is unclear, as many tumors do not express the protein that V-alpha-24-invariant NKT cells target.

However, Leonid Metelitsa and colleagues, at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, and The Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, have now shown, in vitro and in mice, that human V-alpha-24-invariant NKT cells indirectly affect neuroblastoma growth by killing tumor-associated cells that promote the growth of neuroblastoma cells.

In the study, human tumor-associated cells known as monocytes/macrophages were found to produce the soluble factor IL-6, which further analysis revealed stimulates the growth of neuroblastoma cells in vitro and after they have been transplanted into mice.

As expected, human V-alpha-24-invariant NKT cells did not kill neuroblastoma cells in vitro, but they did kill monocytes pulsed with tumor antigens. Consistent with this, the growth of neuroblastoma cells was substantially impaired in mice infused with monocytes and V-alpha-24-invariant NKT cells, when compared to mice only receiving monocytes.

These data therefore provide insight into a mechanism by which V-alpha-24-invariant NKT cells can impact cancer outcome.

Source: Science Daily

When you are not using your computer, it is basically a rather large paperweight.




Why not allow it to be used for scientific research? Grid computing allows World Community Grid connects computers from all around the world and turns them into one large super computer for medical research.

By Lois M. Collins

A Massachusetts company with strong Utah ties is approaching the finding and fixing of cancerous tumors as an engineering challenge.

ScienceDaily (Oct. 1, 2009) — A promising new molecular imaging technique may provide physicians and patients with a noninvasive way to learn more information about a type of cancer of the uterus lining called "endometrial carcinoma"—one of the most common malignant female tumors.

By Michelle Fay Cortez and Trista Kelley

Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Insulin and the medicines that increase the hormone may boost cancer risk in people with diabetes, while drugs that make the body more sensitive to insulin may lower the danger, said researchers at a diabetes conference in Europe.

By Thomas H. Maugh II
Los Angeles Times / October 1, 2009

LOS ANGELES - US breast cancer deaths have declined about 2 percent a year since 1990, according to the American Cancer Society.

Carol Cruzan Morton


BOSTON, Mass. (September 14, 2009) -- In a one-two punch, a familiar diabetes drug reduced tumors faster and prolonged remission in mice longer than chemotherapy alone, apparently by targeting cancer stem cells, report Harvard Medical School researchers in the Sept.

Scientists may have found the key to curing cancer after identifying the gene that switches on disease-fighting "Natural Killer" blood cells.

The breakthrough discovery could even help scientists find the key to preventing autoimmune diseases such as diabetes and multiple sclerosis
The gene discovered, known as E4bp4, causes blood stem cells to turn in to Natural Killer (NK) immune cells.

By Jennifer Robin Raj

BANGALORE, June 22 (Reuters) - Shares of Medarex Inc (MEDX.O) rose as much as 22 percent Monday on a Mayo Clinic report that two prostate cancer patients became cancer-free after being treated with the company's experimental drug, ipilimumab, in combination with other therapies and surgery.

On Friday, the Mayo Clinic said both patients experienced reduction in levels of a protein called PSA, or prostate specific antigen, and tumor shrinkage after receiving one dose of ipilimumab, which allowed them to be treated with surgery.

By Jennifer Corbett Dooren

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--A key study looking at adding the lung-cancer drug Tarceva to Avastin showed the product helped delay the advancement of the disease while a separate study showed that continuing initial treatment with Alimta helped prolong survival in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

The studies are scheduled to be presented this weekend at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting.

By MICHAEL SMITH

In what researchers are calling a first, a vaccine that targets skin cancer cells shrinks tumors and cuts the chance that the disease will return.

In a large clinical trial, more than twice as many people who got the vaccine saw their tumors shrink compared to those who didn't get the drug, Dr. Douglas Schwartzentruber of Indiana University told colleagues at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Spotted here

By ANDREW POLLACK - May 31, 2009

ORLANDO, Fla. — The breast cancer drug Herceptin may now have a role in treating stomach cancer as well, according to study results announced here on Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Scientists also announced that a new class of drugs called PARP inhibitors has shown promise against hard-to-treat forms of breast cancer and that a cancer vaccine for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that struck out twice might have succeeded on a third try.

In a study sponsored by Roche, which sells Herceptin, stomach cancer patients who received Herceptin in addition to standard chemotherapy lived a median of 13.8 months compared with 11.1 months for those who treated with standard chemotherapy alone.

Spotted here

Biopharmaceutical company Molecular Templates Inc. has completed a $2.5 million Series A round of financing.

JOHN COLLINSThe screensaver cuts the time it takes to download data from 100 years to just one year

YOUR COMPUTER’S screensaver can now help find a cure for childhood cancer thanks to IBM and Japanese researchers.

Researchers at the Chiba Cancer Center Research Institute and Chiba University have signed up to be part of IBM’s World Community Grid in an effort to try to find a possible drug treatment for neuroblastoma, one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in children.

When computer owners install the World Community Grid screensaver, it downloads data from the internet while the computer is idle. It then carries out calculations on the data and uploads the results to the central server.

»www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/hea···506.html

TOKYO, Mar 17, 2009 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) ----IBM (NYSE: IBM: 92.86, 1.661, 1.82%) and researchers from the Chiba Cancer Center Research Institute and Chiba University in Japan are launching a new World Community Grid project to discover a drug treatment for neuroblastoma, the most common cause of death in children with solid tumors. Cancer is a leading cause of death in children.

By ROBERT S. BOYD

WASHINGTON -- Millions of "natural killer cells" - nature's first line of defense against cancer, viruses and other infectious microbes - are on constant patrol inside your body.

January 30, 2009 - BY TINA JOHANSSON - Special to the News-Sun

ZION -- A clinical trial at Cancer Treatment Centers of America at Midwestern Regional Medical Center raises hope of finding a cure for ovarian cancer -- the fifth-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women.

On Thursday, Natalie Neuman of Glenwood got the first-ever vaccine designed to turn cancer cells into cancer fighters.

For more than a century, Drosophila melanogaster, a species of common fruit fly, has been an indispensable model organism for genetics research. These flies thrive in the laboratory with minimal care and expense, reproduce rapidly, and possess an easily manipulated genome.

Spurred by liquid crystal pharmaceuticals’ early promise, researchers aim to find more gems in Kent State’s vast inventory

By CHUCK SODER

Chun-che Tsai hopes that one day, LCPs will be as common as LCDs.

The Kent State University chemistry professor is one of a few Northeast Ohio researchers trying to tap Kent State’s vast knowledge of liquid crystals — the molecules behind the screens of computers, televisions and cell phones worldwide — to fuel the development of liquid crystal pharmaceuticals, or LCPs.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

MIAMI — A Boca Raton couple got a new dog, and it's just like their old dog. Not just the same breed and gender, but the same DNA.