Advanced Melanoma Tumors Eradicated In Mouse Model

5 (1 votes)

Cancers arise in the body all the time. Most are nipped in the bud by the immune response, not least by its T cells, which detect telltale molecular markers - or antigens - on cancer cells and destroy them before they grow into tumors. Cancer cells, for their part, evolve constantly to evade such assassination. Those that succeed become full-blown malignancies. Yet, given the right sort of help, the immune system can destroy even these entrenched tumors.

In the Journal of Experimental Medicine, researchers led by Jedd Wolchok, MD, PhD, of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York describe one way in which that might be achieved. The paper relates how the cancer drug cyclophosphamide (CTX) and OX86 - an antibody that activates a molecule named OX40 on T cells - were combined with a cutting-edge therapy known as adoptive T cell transfer to eradicate advanced melanoma tumors in mice.

Wolchok and his colleagues had previously shown that CTX and OX86 treatment caused the regression of such tumors. Now they wanted to see if adding T cell transfer to the mix would further improve outcomes. T cell transfer is an investigative immunotherapy in which T cells that target tumors are isolated from patients, manipulated, expanded and then transfused back into those patients.

A variety of T cells are of relevance to this approach. One is the CD8

View the Original article

Treatment Of Tumors Based On Differentiation Therapies, A Novel Strategy For The Treatment Of An Aggressive Type Of Skin Cancer

Skin squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a subtype of very aggressive skin cancers that usually develops in sunexposed body regions, but can also affect a large number of organs such as the bladder, esophagus, lungs etc. However, little is known about the biology of these cells, which consequently makes difficult the generation of new specific therapies; actually, the standard treatments are based on surgery and subsequent radiotherapy.

Researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) led by Erwin Wagner, vice-director of Basic Research and director of BBVA Foundation-CNIO Cancer Cell Biology Programme, have discovered a molecular mechanism that favours the disappearance and inhibition of SCC development. The authors propose that these mechanisms could be crucial for the development of targeted therapies that could potentially overcome drug resistance.

The study, which also involves the participation of medical researchers at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, is published in the online edition of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

"The guardian of the genome" p53, decreases cell division in favour of cell differentiation

Using in vitro models, mouse genetic models and human tumors, researchers have uncovered the molecular signals by which the p53 protein, also called "the guardian of the genome", prevents the formation of skin SCC tumors.

"We demonstrate for the first time that p53 promotes differentiation

View the Original article