(Press-News.org) PORTLAND, Ore. — Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children's Hospital have defined the cell of origin for a kind of cancer called sarcoma. In a study published today as the Featured Article in the journal Cancer Cell, they report that childhood and adult sarcomas are linked in their biology, mutations and the cells from which these tumors first start. These findings may lead to non-chemotherapy medicines that can inhibit "molecular targets" such as growth factor receptors, thereby stopping or eradicating the disease.
Childhood muscle cancer, or rhabdomyosarcoma, is a condition that when spread throughout the body has a low survival rate — just 20 percent to 40 percent. In adults with soft tissue sarcomas, survival can be even lower. Now, for the first time, the researchers have shown from where these tumors arise and what drives them to grow and spread.
"A commonly held belief is that cancers should be cut out, burned out or killed. There is a fourth option — to have cancer cells choose to become normal cells, in this case muscle cells," said Charles Keller, M.D., principal investigator of the study, leader of Pediatric Cancer Biology Program in the Papé Family Pediatric Research Institute at OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital, and a member of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute and the Oregon Stem Cell Center at OHSU.
"At least for a subset of patients, possibly the ones with hereditary cancer, one approach suggested by our research might be to administer drugs that muscle cancers to convert into non-cancerous muscle fibers. This is a minority opinion, but one held by a small group of careful scientists throughout the United States and abroad," said Keller.
The survival rate for childhood muscle cancer that has spread has remained unchanged for more than 40 years. It has reached the point that increasing the intensity of chemotherapy, radiation or surgery is no longer having any improved effect, Keller explained. He and colleagues have taken a novel approach in the laboratory as well as in new clinical trials, using non-chemotherapy medicines to inhibit "molecular targets" such as growth factor receptors.
Suman Malempati, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics (hematology/oncology) and director of the Oncology Developmental Therapeutics Program at OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital, is the lead on a national clinical trial of one such growth factor inhibitor. This is the Children's Oncology Group's first trial incorporating a molecularly targeted drug into a clinical trial for childhood muscle cancer and was funded by CureSearch for Children's Cancer, a nationwide network of hospitals, doctors and leading scientists that develop new treatments for childhood cancer.
This type of therapy tailored to a cancer's mutation was first pioneered at OHSU by Brian J. Druker, M.D., director of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute and recipient of the 2009 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, commonly referred to as America's Nobel Prize. Druker and colleagues developed Gleevec, the first genetically targeted, non-chemotherapy pill for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) that left healthy cells unharmed and converted this fatal cancer into a manageable chronic condition.
###
This study was funded by the National Cancer Institute and the Scott Carter Foundation.
About OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital (www.ohsudoernbecher.com)
OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital is a world-class facility that each year cares for tens of thousands of children from Oregon, southwest Washington and around the nation, including national and international referrals for specialty care. Children have access to a full range of pediatric care, not just treatments for serious illness or injury, resulting in more than 165,000 outpatient visits, discharges, surgeries and pediatric transports annually. Nationally recognized physicians ensure that children receive exceptional care, including outstanding cancer treatment, specialized neurology care and highly sophisticated heart surgery in the most patient- and family-centered environment. Pediatric experts from OHSU Doernbecher travel throughout Oregon and southwest Washington to provide specialty care to some 3,000 children at more than 154 outreach clinics in 13 locations.
About Children's Oncology Group and CureSearch for Children's Cancer (www.curesearch.org)
CureSearch for Children's Cancer funds the live saving research of the Children's Oncology Group (COG), the world's largest cooperative pediatric cancer research entity. Comprised of a network for 210 member hospitals and more than 6,500 member physicians and medical professionals worldwide, COG clinical and translational research has improved overall cure rates from 10 percent 40 years ago to 78 percent today. In the United States, 90 percent of children with cancer receive treatment at a COG member hospital.
END
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders may be at higher risk for hemorrhagic stroke at a younger age and more likely to have diabetes compared to other ethnicities, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 63rd Annual Meeting in Honolulu April 9 to April 16, 2011.
"Racial differences in stroke risk factors have been well-studied in Hispanic and African-American populations, but this is the first study to address people of Native Hawaiian ethnicity," said study author Kazuma Nakagawa, MD, with ...
Contact: Jonathan Covault, M.D., Ph.D.
jocovault@uchc.edu
860-679-7560
University of Connecticut School of Medicine
A. Leslie Morrow, Ph.D.
morrow@med.unc.edu
919-966-7682
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
How genetic variations in neuroactive steroid-producing enzymes may influence drinking habits
Alcohol dependence (AD) may develop through alcohol's effects on neural signaling.
Researchers have found that neuroactive steroids may mediate some of the effects of alcohol on γ-aminobutyric ...
Contact: Richard J. Rose, Ph.D.
rose@indiana.edu
812-855-8770
Indiana University
Matt McGue, Ph.D.
mmcgue@tfs.psych.umn.edu
612-625-8305
University of Minnesota
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
Why problem drinking during adolescence is never a 'phase'
The Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI) is widely used to assess adolescent drinking-related problems.
Researchers used adolescent RAPI scores to
examine diagnoses of alcohol dependence during young adulthood.
More drinking-related problems experienced at age 18 were associated ...
Contact: Katherine P. Theall, Ph.D.
ktheall@tulane.edu
504-988-4535
Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
Density of neighborhood liquor stores is especially risky for African-Americans who drink
Previous studies have shown a strong link between neighborhood alcohol environments and outcomes such as drunk driving and violence. This study investigated linkages between neighborhood liquor stores, on-premise outlets, convenience stores, and supermarket densities and at-risk drinking among African ...
Contact: Ian Demsky
idemsky@umich.edu
734-764-2220
University of Michigan
Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research
Alcohol's disruptive effects on sleep may be more pronounced among women
Researchers have known for decades that alcohol can initially deepen sleep during the early part of the night but then disrupt sleep during the latter part of the night; this is called a "rebound effect." A new study of the influence of gender and family history of alcoholism on sleep has found that intoxication can increase feelings of sleepiness while at the same time ...
A paper published in this week's issue of PLoS Medicine provides the most detailed assessment thus far of civilian deaths in the course of the recent Iraq war. Madelyn Hsiao-Rei Hicks from King's College London, UK and colleagues analyzed data from Iraq Body Count (IBC), a nongovernmental project that collates media reports of deaths of individual Iraqi civilians and cross-checks these reports with data from hospitals, morgues, nongovernmental organizations, and official figures.
The authors studied 92,614 Iraqi civilian direct deaths from the IBC database that occurred ...
Although there is no evidence to suggest a direct causal pathway, some intravaginal practices used by women in sub-Saharan Africa (such as washing the vagina with soap) may increase the acquisition of HIV infection and so should be avoided. Encouraging women to use less harmful intravaginal practices (for example, washing with water alone) should therefore be included in female-initiated HIV prevention research strategies in sub-Saharan Africa. These are the key findings from a study by Nicola Low, from the University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland, and colleagues and published ...
Water softeners provide no additional clinical benefit to usual care in children with eczema, so the use of ion-exchange water softeners for the treatment of moderate to severe eczema in children should not be recommended. However, it is up to each family to decide whether or not the wider benefits of installing a water softener in their home are sufficient to consider buying one. These are the findings of a study by Kim Thomas from the University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK, and colleagues and published in this week's PLoS Medicine.
The authors conducted their randomised ...
New research sheds light on the interaction between the semi-flexible protein tropomyosin and actin thin filaments. The study, published by Cell Press on February 15th in the Biophysical Journal, provides the first detailed atomic model of tropomyosin bound to actin and significantly advances the understanding of the dynamic relationship between these key cellular proteins.
Tropomyosin is a long protein that associates with actin, a highly conserved thin filament protein found in organisms from yeast to humans. Actin, a major part of the cell's cytoskeleton, drives shape ...
VIDEO:
This movie shows a typical (wild type) mouse as it spends much more time exploring an object it has never seen before and little time with the object it has...
Click here for more information.
DURHAM, N.C. – Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have uncovered clues to memory and learning by exploring the function of a single gene that governs how neurons form new connections. The finding may also provide insights into a form of human mental retardation.
In a ...
