(Posted: 11/20/2012) - The development of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is associated with a variety of genetic changes. Some of these alterations are epigenetic, wherein the sequence of the genes is unchanged, but chemical modifications to the DNA alter gene expression. In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center found that a transcriptional regulator known as C/EBPG was highly expressed in a subset of AML samples that had an epigenetically silenced C/EBPA gene. The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a component of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

(Posted: 11/20/2012) - Although patients may feel anxious waiting weeks from the time of their first doctor visit to evaluate their breast until they have breast cancer surgery, new findings from Fox Chase Cancer Center show that these waits are typical in the United States. Results were published on Monday, November 19 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

(Posted: 11/19/2012) - Chromatin remodeling complexes (CRCs) are cellular protein complexes that behave like motors, expanding or compacting different portions of DNA to either express or silence genes. Previously, scientists thought that the motor within CRCs waits at rest until it receives instructions. New research from the Huntsman Cancer Institute shows that the motor within a key CRC responsible for gene packaging and assembly is intrinsically turned on, and instead requires specific instructions to turn it off.

(Posted: 11/16/2012) - A promising new approach to treating solid tumors with radiation was highly efficacious and minimally toxic to healthy tissue in a mouse model of cancer, according to data published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Some patients with solid tumors, including prostate cancer, are treated using a clinical technique called brachytherapy. Brachytherapy involves the surgical implantation of radioactive "seeds" within a patient's tumor to expose the tumor cells to high levels of radiation while minimizing the negative side effects of radiation on the rest of the body. Researchers at Duke University (home to the Duke Cancer Institute) generated an injectable substance, called a polymer, attached to a source of radioactivity that spontaneously assembled into a radioactive seed after being injected into a tumor.

(Posted: 11/16/2012) - Insights from a genetic condition that causes brain cancer are helping scientists better understand the most common type of brain tumor in children. In new research, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (home to the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center) have identified a cell growth pathway that is unusually active in pediatric brain tumors known as gliomas. They previously identified the same growth pathway as a critical contributor to brain tumor formation and growth in neurofibromatosis-1 (NF1), an inherited cancer predisposition syndrome.

(Posted: 11/15/2012) - Heart failure is a relatively common complication in older women with breast cancer, but the risk is even higher in those patients treated with adjuvant trastuzumab (Herceptin©), Yale School of Medicine researchers report in the current issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The researchers conducted this study because older women who are at higher risk of decreased heart function were often excluded from randomized clinical trials of trastuzumab, which is used to treat breast tumors that over-express human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER-2). Past clinical trials in younger, healthier women showed improved survival, but also increased heart complications linked to trastuzumab, especially when combined with a frequently used therapy called anthracycline chemotherapy. The Yale School of Medicine is home to the Yale Cancer Center.

(Posted: 11/14/2012) - A new three-dimensional (3-D) digital mammography technique has the potential to significantly improve the accuracy of breast cancer screening, according to an Emory University School of Medicine and Winship Cancer Institute study published in Radiology. A novel technique called stereoscopic digital mammography (SDM) mimmicks the way that human eyes work together to form a 3-D image. The technique uses digital mammography equipment that's been modified to allow the X-ray tube to move separately from the cassette. The resulting images are viewed on two monitors mounted one above the other.

(Posted: 11/14/2012) - Results of a University of Arizona Cancer Center’s scientist-led clinical trial show that a drug already approved for breast and lung cancer improved progression-free survival in patients with metastatic melanoma. The findings of the Phase III study of nab-paclitaxel, brand name Abraxane®, therapy compared to standard dacarbazine therapy were presented at the Society for Melanoma Research in California Nov. 11.

(Posted: 11/14/2012) - The cancer-causing form of the gene Myc alters the metabolism of mitochondria, the cell’s powerhouse, making it dependent on the amino acid glutamine for survival. In fact, 40 percent of all “hard-to-treat” cancers have a mutation in the Myc gene. Accordingly, depriving cells of glutamine selectively induces programmed cell death in cells overexpressing mutant Myc. Using Myc-active neuroblastoma cancer cells, a team led by investigators from the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, identified the proteins PUMA, NOXA, and TRB3 as executors of the glutamine-starved cells. These three proteins represent a downstream target in the Myc pathway at which to aim drugs. Roughly 25 percent of all neuroblastoma cases are associated with Myc-active cells.

(Posted: 11/14/2012) - Terminally ill cancer patients who have an early talk with their physician about care at the end-of-life are less likely to receive aggressive therapy – and more likely to enter hospice care – than patients who delay such discussions until the days and weeks before death, a new study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers suggests.