Other New Research

Two new studies have revealed that not only are there no newly-developed ‘mutations’ in DNA causing cancer formation; but also where there is an inherited mutation, it does not reduce cancer survival times; if anything people with an inherited mutation survive longer! Source: Cancer drivers are NOT found in DNA | CANCERactive

Cancer diagnoses appear to be on the rise worldwide, but what might explain this apparent increase? We investigate, with input from experts. Source: Why is there an increase in cancer diagnoses?

Even though preventive chemotherapy is effective for breast cancer, uptake of these medications is low among women who have a high risk of developing breast cancer or who have benign lesions, such as atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH), atypical lobular hyperplasia (ALH), and lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS). Source: Clinical Challenges: Chemoprevention for Early Breast Cancer […]

Because epigenetics doesn’t focus on the specific genetic code of a tumor, solutions aren’t limited to a specific type of cancer (breast cancer or colon cancer, for example). They have the potential to apply to a broad range of cancers. Source: This Philly Cancer Center Is Overturning Our Basic Understanding of Cancer with Its Insight […]

Metformin—a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes when diet and exercise are not enough—has previously been reported to decrease all-cause mortality in breast cancer patients Source: Metformin Has Been Shown to Prevent Multi-Drug Resistance in Breast Cancer – The Breast Cancer Site News

A new class of drugs prevents the repair of damaged DNA. In recent animal studies, scientists found that it killed cancer cells with BRCA mutations. Source: Scientists investigate a new class of anticancer drugs

Prostate cancer risk was lowered by 31%, lung cancer risk was lowered by 20%, and breast cancer risk was lowered by 10%. In patients with atrial fibrillation, bowel cancer risk was also reduced by 29%. Overall, patients were 16% less likely to get any type of cancer Source: Blood-Thinning Drug Warfarin Decreases Risk of Several […]

This article looks at the currently available immunotherapy treatments in more detail, including how they work and which types of breast cancer they may treat. Source: Immunotherapy for breast cancer: Types and effectiveness

Here, we provide a sneak peek at the fascinating forefront of cancer research in 2021. Source: Cancer research: New advances and innovations

For some cancer survivors, recurrence seems inevitable. But it might not be that way for long. Source: New Vaccine Stimulates Survivors’ Immune Systems to Keep Triple-Negative Cancer from Returning | The Breast Cancer Site News

Cancer can’t hide anymore. Source: Cancer Is Much Easier to Find Now that Researchers Have Found a Way to Make It GLOW! | The Breast Cancer Site News

Most advanced-stage cancers mutate, resisting drugs meant to kill them. Now doctors are harnessing the principles of evolution to thwart that lethal adaptation. Source: A Clever New Strategy for Treating Cancer, Thanks to Darwin | WIRED

A device being dubbed a cancer “decoy” can attract cancer cells roving through the body and trap them, according to a study out of the University of Michigan. Source: Cancer “Decoys” Planted Underneath The Skin Lure In Cancer Cells And Stop Metastasis | The Breast Cancer Site News

Clinical trials for a breast cancer vaccine are set to begin in early 2021. See more information here. Source: Breast Cancer Vaccine Trials Set to Begin in 2021 | Patient Power

Researchers are increasingly drawn to the study of metabolism, the collective suite of chemical reactions occurring in cells, for answers to questions about cancer. A new searchable database aids that quest. Source: Scientists Create First-of-Its-Kind Metabolic Road Map of Cancer | Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Cancer researchers are exploring all kinds of new and creative approaches to immunotherapy, treatments that help the immune system fight cancer. The latest involves nanoparticles that trains immune cells to attack cancer. Source: Nanoparticle Trains Immune Cells to Attack Cancer – National Cancer Institute

It targets cancer cells, leaving healthy cells alone, and has minimal side effects. Source: 1 in 5 Breast Cancer Patients Could Benefit from This Treatment — If They Could Get It | The Breast Cancer Site News

While this new family of drugs must now undergo clinical trials the work directly shows proof of concept that it is feasible to successfully design drugs that can prevent metastasis, by targeting the process of cellular energy production. Hence, cutting off the fuel supply, prevents metastasis. Source: Breakthrough discovery could turn cancer into a treatable […]

A study published in Nature Cell Biology revealed incredible news: cancer cells in the lab can be turned back into normal cells. Source: Researchers Have Discovered How To Turn Cancer Cells BACK Into Normal Cells! | The Breast Cancer Site Blog

It targets cancer cells, leaving healthy cells alone, and has minimal side effects. Source: 1 in 5 Breast Cancer Patients Could Benefit from This Treatment — If They Could Get It | The Breast Cancer Site Blog

These are the targeted therapies doctors use to treat breast cancer Source: Targeted Therapies for Breast Cancer: Ibrance, Herceptin, Verzenio, and More

First thing to know:It’s a cancer “industry” first and foremost. Source: The truth about cancer research | Brasscheck TV

The new treatment is tolerable for the human body. Source: New Israeli Cancer Treatment Has a 100% Tumor Shrinkage Rate

Targeted breast cancer therapies are treatments that target specific characteristics of cancer cells. Learn more about targeted therapies for breast cancer. Source: Targeted Therapies for Breast Cancer: Ibrance, Herceptin, Verzenio, and More

New research finds that the diabetes drug metformin changes stem cancer cells in a way that makes them easier to target with a new form of treatment. Source: Is a diabetes drug the key to aggressive breast cancer?

What if we could genetically engineer a patient’s own immune cells to spot and fight cancer, as a sort of “best hits” of genetic therapy and immunotherapy?Enter CAR-T. The technology uses T-cells, which are like the bouncers of the immune system. Source: Behind the Scenes of a Radical New Cancer Cure – Scientific American Blog […]

Below, we review some of the most recent cancer research breakthroughs that give us renewed hope that better therapies and prevention strategies will soon follow suit. Source: Cancer: How close are we to curing it?

Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green is one of fewer than 100 black female physicists in the country, and the recent winner of $1.1 million grant to further develop a technology she’s pioneered that uses laser-activated nanoparticles to treat cancer. Source: Black female physicist pioneers technology that kills cancer cells with lasers – Women in the World

A new approach to cancer therapy suggests that doctors may be able to keep cancer in check by placing metastatic cells in a state of dormancy, thus blocking them from giving rise to new tumors. A recent study in mice has found that an existing drug could effectively contain metastatic breast cancer cells. Source: Is […]

Researchers have developed a multistate model to identify 11 integrative subtypes of breast cancer with different risks of recurrence, according to the findings of a study published online in Nature. Source: Identifying Breast Cancer Subtypes Associated With Late Recurrence – Cancer Therapy Advisor

Cancer cells can alter their metabolism to survive, so targeting cancer cell metabolism has become of great interest to researchers. Questions being asked include: Is it possible to attack a tumor’s nutritional needs as part of cancer treatment? And could this be done by tweaking a cancer patient’s diet? Source: Altering Diet to Enhance Cancer Treatment […]

Researchers are excited about the prospect to use vaccines in combination with checkpoint inhibitors to improve the body’s cancer-fighting ability. Source: Checkpoint Inhibitors Boost Cancer Vaccine Research – Cancer Therapy Advisor

“When the mechanism is deactivated, the immune system becomes much more aggressive against the tumor cells,” scientist says. Source: Newly Discovered Mechanism Helps Our Own Immune Systems Fight Cancer

A powerful case study and literature review published in the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Pathology highlights a phenomenon which is rarely if ever acknowledged by the conventional medical establishment, namely, a case of the spontaneous regression of breast cancer with distant lymph node metastasis. Source: Yes, Breast Cancer Can (and Often Does) Spontaneously […]

The study of cancer genomes has revealed abnormalities in genes that drive the development and growth of many types of cancer. This knowledge has improved our understanding of the biology of cancer and led to new methods of diagnosing and treating the disease. Source: Research Areas: Cancer Genomics – National Cancer Institute

Scientists reveal how cancer ‘tricks’ immune cells into working for tumors rather than against them, and a molecule that may stop this deceptive mechanism. Source: New molecule stops cancer from ‘tricking’ the immune system

Using data from a person’s immune response, researchers have devised a blood test that may accurately predict the risk of breast cancer recurrence. Source: Breast cancer: Blood test may predict relapse

Study reveals a common cellular mechanism through which bacterial infection could promote cancer and increase resistance to anticancer drugs. Source: Infections and cancer: The link could be stronger than we think

New research in mice finds that having an unhealthful balance in the gut microbiome can cause breast cancer to spread more aggressively. Source: Could gut bacteria drive the spread of breast cancer?

“Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, we can personalize screening around a woman’s risk of developing cancer,” senior study author Regina Barzilay, an MIT professor who is also a breast-cancer survivor, said in a statement. “For example, a doctor might recommend that one group of women get a mammogram every other year, while another higher-risk […]

Most people still think of cancer as related to one organ, like breast, prostate or lung cancer. The idea that cancers that arise in different places could have similar, if not identical, causes is a surprise to most people.

Seventy percent of young, pre-menopausal women in the study who took a drug called ribociclib in combination with standard hormone therapy were alive after 3-1/2 years, compared to just 46% of women who received hormone therapy alone. Source: Breakthrough combination therapy extends lives of women with the most common breast cancer

Lead author Sara Hurvitz told AFP the study focused on hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, which accounts for two-thirds of all breast cancer cases among younger women and is generally treated by therapies that block estrogen production. Source: New breast cancer drug found to boost survival rates by 30 percent – Schwartzreport

 In a study titled ‘Measles to the Rescue’, the researchers say that “virotherapeutic agents are likely to become serious contenders in cancer treatment”, and that the vaccine strain of measles virus holds special hope. Source: April 2019 | 2019 | Measles is a natural cancer killer | April | 2019 | News | What Doctors […]

“They got all of it” are the reassuring words people hope to hear following cancer surgery, but a growing understanding of the science of how cancer spreads, and metastasizes, is suggesting that not only is this almost never true but—and here is the surprising part—it might be better to try to contain the cancer than […]

This is an  alternative theory of cancer treatment–outside of the mainstream but worth investigating Source: Are Cancer Stem Cells the Key to Discovering a Cure? | Wake Up World

NPR is calling scientists’ attempts at using the body’s own immune system to fight cancer “one of the most important developments in cancer research in decades.” Source: BREAKING: FDA Panel Approves “Living Drug” That Uses Patient’s Own Immune System To Fight Cancer | The Breast Cancer Site Blog

Virotherapy is a treatment that uses biotechnology to transform certain viruses into anti-disease agents. These viruses include oncolytic viruses, which infect and destroy cancer cells.

Revolutionary work on the body’s immune system and a host of new drug trials mean that beating cancer may be achievable Source: A cure for cancer: how to kill a killer | Science | The Guardian

Metastatic breast cancer may soon be treated using light to activate photo-sensitive drugs which, in turn, can target cancer cells and avoid healthy ones. Source: Using light to destroy metastatic breast cancer

Besides being potentially able to treat breast cancer in 20 percent of patients, PARP inhibitors also have other benefits. They target only the cancerous cells, leaving healthy cells alone, and they cause very minimal side effects in most patients. Source: 1 in 5 Breast Cancer Patients Could Benefit from This Treatment — If They Could […]

Metastasis and recurrence are huge challenges for breast cancer researchers. One group believes that an existing antibiotic might provide help. Source: Antibiotic may prevent breast cancer recurrence

Pioneering methods are being developed to find traces of tumours quickly in small blood samples Source: Could we soon be able to detect cancer in 10 minutes? | Science | The Guardian

“Our cancer cure will be effective from day one, will last a duration of a few weeks and will have no or minimal side-effects at a much lower cost than most other treatments on the market,” Aridor said. “Our solution will be both generic and personal.”

Scientists have developed a novel drug combination that makes invasive breast cancer cells transform into fat cells. The treatment prevented metastasis in mice. Source: Breast cancer: Changing tumor cells into fat cells stops spread

In addition to confirming several well-known cancer predisposition genes, investigators found that novel genes MSH6 and ATM were significantly linked to moderate risk in breast cancer and ovarian cancer, respectively, according to a study published in JAMA Oncology. Source: Beyond BRCA: New Predisposition Genes Linked to Breast, Ovarian Cancers – Cancer Therapy Advisor

Much of the hundreds of millions of tons of plastic waste in our oceans is made up of microplastics. These are defined as plastic beads, fibers or fragments with a diameter of less than five thousand micrometers (μm), equal to one-half centimeter. Nanoplastics are thousands of times tinier, with a diameter of less than 0.1 μm, and are also likely to be widely present. By comparison, a human hair ranges from about 15 to 180 μm across. Some of these microplastics are deliberately engineered like microbeads in a facial scrub. Others result from the break down of larger plastic items.

A new study shows that the cells surrounding the breast’s milk ducts form an active barrier that extends and grabs cancer cells before they spread to the rest of the body.

Researchers designed a novel approach to immunotherapy that led to the complete regression of breast cancer in one patient for whom all other treatments failed. Source: Breast cancer patient benefits from modified immunotherapy | National Institutes of Health (NIH)

The Cancer MoonshotSM was announced in 2016 with three overarching goals: accelerate progress in cancer research, encourage greater collaboration, and improve the sharing of data. More than 2 years later, the foundation has been laid for achieving those goals. Source: The Cancer Moonshot: Moving from Planning to Research – National Cancer Institute

Medical treatments targeting DNA in tumor cells are celebrated, but insurers often won’t cover the skyrocketing cost. Source: Pricey Precision Medicine Is Financially Toxic for Cancer Patients

“Our laboratory designed proteins that, for the first time, can actually recognise the single-stranded DNA and bind it. We can basically program these proteins to target them,” he notes. In doing this, the team managed to disrupt the molecular mechanism that cancer would “hijack” in order to fuel the uncontrolled, and thus harmful, growth of cells.

A study suggests that blocking certain epigenetic proteins with drugs could prevent women at high risk of breast cancer from developing the disease. Source: Could blocking these proteins stop breast cancer?

A novel approach to immunotherapy developed by NCI researchers led to the complete regression of breast cancer in a patient who was unresponsive to all other treatments. The findings were published in Nature Medicine. Source: Immunotherapy targets metastatic breast cancer–cell mutations – National Cancer Institute

The advantage of cryosurgery include that it can be done on an outpatient basis, it’s cheaper than lumpectomy, and the incision is tiny — less than 3 millimeters across, preserving the shape of the breast, said Geetika Klevos, MD, chief of interventional oncology at the University of Miami Sylvester Cancer Center in Florida. “We don’t […]

A compound that targets a unique structure in cancer cell nuclei and has links to metastasis potential stopped cancer spread and extended survival in mice. Source: This ‘metastasis-blocking’ compound may stop the spread of cancer

Some types of breast cancers can prevent the development of secondary tumors elsewhere in the body, a process known as metastasis, through an immune-mediated inflammatory mechanism, an international research team showed. Understanding the complex communication network between the primary tumor and the disseminated metastasis-initiating cancer cells could open new therapeutic avenues to prevent cancer recurrence and improve survival rates.

The researchers conclude that their findings show that blocking CDK7 offers a new way to treat cancer — especially ER-positive breast cancer.
In particular, the results suggest that ICEC0942 is a good candidate drug, either on its own or combined with hormone therapies, for the treatment of breast cancer.

A careful analysis of genomic data further defined 4 primary subtypes of breast cancer, each with its own biology and survival outlook. One subtype shares many genetic features with high-grade serous ovarian cancer. The findings may help to guide future treatment strategies.

Breakthrough research shows that primary breast cancer has the ability to “essentially shut down its own spread.” These findings may help “freeze” cancer cells before they get chance to form secondary tumors. Source: Primary breast cancer can ‘shut down its own spread’

Researchers from Michigan State University in East Lansing are using novel molecular routes to attack cancer. The scientists were particularly interested in bromodomain inhibitors (BET inhibitors). These are a promising new class of drugs that target the genes involved in cancer’s growth.

A vaccine injected directly into tumors in mice has been found to completely destroy them – and it works on many varieties of cancer, including untreated metastases in the same animal. Scientists from the Stanford University of Medicine have developed the potential treatment using two agents which boost the body’s immune system, and a human clinical trial in lymphoma patients is currently being carried out.

Created by scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA, the gel was designed to deliver immunotherapy directly to the area from which a cancerous tumor has been surgically removed. Upon testing the gel on mice during the surgical removal of breast cancer tumors, the scientists found that it not only helped to prevent tumor recurrence at the primary site, but that it also eliminated secondary tumors in the lungs.

“We observed that a higher circulating concentration of vitamin D was associated with a lower risk of subsequent cancer in a large Japanese population. Our findings support the hypothesis that vitamin D may confer protection against the risk of cancer,” commented first author Sanjeev Budhathoki, Centre for Public Health Sciences, National Cancer Centre, Chuo-ku, Tokyo.

Researchers report that injecting mice with inactivated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) launched a strong immune response against breast, lung, and skin cancers. The vaccine also prevented relapses in animals that had tumors removed.

When a virus infects a tumor cell, the virus makes copies of itself until the cell bursts. The dying cancer cell releases materials, such as tumor antigens, that allow the cancer to be recognized, or “seen,” by the immune system. “Oncolytic viruses are alerting the immune system that something’s wrong,” said Jason Chesney, M.D., Ph.D., director of the University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center. This can lead to an immune response against nearby tumor cells (a local response) or tumor cells in other parts of the body (a systemic response). For this reason, some researchers consider oncolytic viruses to be a form of immunotherapy—a treatment that harnesses the immune system against cancer. But many in the field would agree that more studies are needed to learn how different oncolytic viruses work against cancer.

Researchers from Stanford University used stem cells to create a vaccine that has proven effective against breast, lung, and skin cancer in mice.

The latest study, from Stanford University School of Medicine in California, has investigated the potential of yet another approach: injecting “minute” amounts of two agents that stimulate the body’s immune response directly into a malignant solid tumor. So far, their studies using mice have proven successful. “When we use these two agents together,” explains senior study author Dr. Ronald Levy, “we see the elimination of tumors all over the body.”