Tag Archives: Future Cancer Research

Cancer Research, Cancer Treatment, Cancer Vaccine, Immuno-Oncology, Immunotherapy, Immunotherapy for Cancer, News, Uncategorized

Huntington’s Disease Produced Molecules Are Fatal to Cancer Cells

Huntington's Disease Produced Molecules Are Fatal to Cancer Cells
Huntington’s Disease Produced Molecules Are Fatal to Cancer Cells

Could a clue to more effective cancer treatment be found in the biochemistry of another illness? Scientists are hopeful that the gene behind Huntington’s disease could be fatal to cancer cells without harming healthy ones.

What Is Huntington’s Disease?

Huntington’s disease is a genetically inherited condition that destroys nerve cells in the brain. There is currently treatment but no cure for the disorder, which causes a slowly progressive decline in both cognitive and physical abilities.

The faulty gene that triggers Huntington’s disease contains an excessive number of repeats of a certain sequence of nucleotides, which form the building blocks of DNA and RNA. These sequences create small interfering RNAs, which are molecules that attack specific genes crucial for cell survival.

“Assassin Molecules”

Brain cells in particular are vulnerable to the cell death caused by small interfering RNAs. Cancer cells are also highly susceptible, which is thought to be the reason why Huntington’s disease patients have such a low incidence of cancer.

A research team at Northwestern University tested these so-called “assassin molecules” on human and mouse cancer cells, including brain, breast, colon and ovarian, that were grown in a laboratory. The small interfering RNAs killed all cancer cells from both humans and mice.

Researchers were encouraged that the treatment also showed no toxicity to healthy cells. Further testing is underway to find a more targeted form of delivery.

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Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Cancer Vaccine, Uncategorized

Oncolytic Virus in Research May Herald a Cancer Vaccine for the Future

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Immunotherapy brings breakthroughs to cancer treatment.
Immunotherapy brings breakthroughs to cancer treatment.

Promising new cancer treatment research by UC San Francisco has uncovered a cancer killing virus. The vaccine-like effect of the virus harbors potential for use with cancer immunotherapy treatment options, killing some cancer cells directly, and prompting a widespread immune system response to cancer cells far beyond the region the virus infects.

Tremendous Potential
Bringing surprising insight, this new research digs deeper into how oncolytic (cancer-killing) viruses can cooperate with the immune system in attacking cancer cells and tumors. Currently in clinical trials, it points to opportunities in the realm of immunotherapy combination therapies – therapies specifically devised to unleash the full cancer fighting potential of the immune system.

Researchers likened such oncolytic viruses as the equivalent of a bomb, jarring the immune system into action and resuscitating the immune response.

How Do They Work?
Researchers are still coming to terms with fundamentals, which seem to indicate cancer killing viruses attack cancer cells in a number of different ways:

-Through direct infection.
-Via the release of tumor-specific proteins, which trigger a widespread immune response to cancer cells.
-By destroying the blood supply tumors required to survive.

Why a Virus?
Cancer researchers have been exploring the idea of oncolytic viruses since the early 20th century, after observing dramatic remissions following some viral infections. They’ve been actively developing these viruses since the 1980s. With the FDA’s approval and release of oncolytic viral therapy Imlygic (T-Vec) in 2015, such treatment modalities are quickly coming to the forefront of up-and-coming therapy options.

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Cancer Research, Cancer Treatment, News, Stage Four Cancer Treatment, Uncategorized

NIH Calls Proposed Cancer Research Funding Cuts Unacceptable

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NIH Calls Proposed Cancer Research Funding Cuts Unacceptable
NIH Calls Proposed Cancer Research Funding Cuts Unacceptable

Can you put a price on good health? Major medical organizations have been reacting strongly to proposed deep cuts in scientific and medical research funding that would severely hamper research programs such as immunotherapy for cancer.

Drastic Slashes in Scientific Research Funding and Healthcare Coverage

Stipulations in the Trump administration’s proposed 2018 budget that are drawing the biggest backlash include:

• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) would see a staggering $5.8 billion reduction in overall funding, of which $1 billion would come out of the budget for the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

• Over the next 10 years Medicaid funding would be reduced by $600 billion, resulting in lack of health insurance for needy groups such as children, elderly and disabled.

The Scientific and Medical Community Responds

Daniel F. Hayes, M.D., president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), explained that many major breakthroughs in cancer research have come from federally-funded organizations such as the NIH. In addition, federal research funding allows the scientific and medical industry to generate $60 billion a year in economic activity.

Similar concern was expressed by Chris Hansen, president of the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). He referred to polls showing that 90 percent of voters rate federal funding for medical research as “very” or “extremely” important, with 75 percent supporting an increase in NIH funding.

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Alternative Cancer Treatment, Cancer Research, Immunotherapy, Immunotherapy for Cancer

Immunotherapy Experts Share Opinions on the Future of Treatments

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Sharing the Opinions of the Future

What has made cancer immunotherapy such a promising avenue of treatment and where will it be in the next five to 10 years? Jason Luke, M.D., an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, recently shared his opinions about the current and future state of immunotherapy.

Immunotherapy Makes the Type of Cancer Irrelevant

As Dr. Luke explains, immunotherapy is about the difference in the immune system’s response to cancer rather than the difference in the types of tumors. Researchers are focusing on the number of mutations rather than the mutations themselves to determine the quality of the baseline immune response.

New technologies such as gene expression profiling make it easier to measure data. The hope is that eventually this will lead to a broader application of immunotherapy as opposed to a cancer-specific one.

Why Does Immunotherapy Work So Well on Lung Cancer and Melanoma?

According to Dr. Luke, the popular hypothesis is that immunotherapy is particularly effective against lung cancer and melanoma due to mutations making these cancer cells stand out more vividly from healthy tissues so the immune system can readily detect them.

Combining Immunotherapy with Other Treatments

There appears to be three main phenotypes in cancer patients that dictate their response to antibodies, from low to medium to high. Dr. Luke feels that combining immunotherapy with chemo and targeted therapies offers the most potential for long-term benefits.

Issels®: The Past, Present and Future of Cancer Immunotherapy

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