In the battle against breast cancer, medicine may be shooting at the wrong enemy. Much like using a weed-whacker to remove the top of lawn weeds, leaving the root behind, conventional treatments that target mature, late-acting cancer cells may miss early cells that can give rise to cancer recurrences.
A natural, nontoxic product called genistein-combined polysaccharide, or GCP, which is commercially available in health stores, could help lengthen the life expectancy of certain prostate cancer patients, UC Davis researchers have found.
Study will help physicians calculate risk of post-surgical venous thromboembolisms. New research from the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center may help clinicians determine which patients are at highest risk for post-surgical blood clots in the legs or lungs.
A team of UC Davis scientists has found that a product resulting from a metabolized omega-3 fatty acid helps combat cancer by cutting off the supply of oxygen and nutrients that fuel tumor growth and spread of the disease.
The most recent in a series of studies from a team at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center has shown that a single molecule is at the heart of one of the most basic survival tactics of prostate cancer cells.
The guideline, released jointly by the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and the American Urological Association (AUA), for the first time provides evidence- and consensus-based recommendations about the benefits and risks of additional cancer treatment after prostate-removal surgery.
Orthopedic oncologists and surgical oncologists, who have been trained in the complex procedures required to remove sarcomas located deep in the muscles and other soft tissues of the limbs, conducted only 52 percent of these operations at 85 academic medical centers during a three year period, according to an analysis of national data by UC Davis researchers that is published online today in the Journal of Surgical Oncology.
When public health budgets are constrained, mammography screening should begin later and occur less frequently, a cost-effectiveness analysis for California’s Every Woman Counts (EWC) program concludes.
With a deluge of promising new drug treatments for advanced prostate cancer on the market, a new model of care is needed that emphasizes collaboration between urologists and medical oncologists, according to UC Davis prostate cancer experts.
An international team of researchers led by UC Davis in collaboration with scientists in Mexico and South Korea have taken a first step towards identifying glycans — sugars attached to proteins — that could help clinicians diagnose gastric cancer before it becomes deadly. Their research was published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.
Biomarkers for bone formation and resorption predict outcomes for men with castration-resistant prostate cancer, a team of researchers from UC Davis and their collaborators have found. Their study, published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, also found that the markers identified a small group of patients who responded to the investigational drug atrasentan. The markers’ predictive ability could help clinicians match treatments with individual patients, track their effectiveness and affect clinical trial design.
The hunt is on to find biomarkers that detect cancer, but it’s a challenging process. Early successes often are followed by heartbreaking failures. But now, researchers at UC Davis have verified that glycans (sugars attached to proteins) can be used to detect ovarian cancer. The study was published online in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
Twenty years after Congress mandated that research funded by the National Institutes of Health include minorities, less than 5 percent of trials participants are non-white, and less than 2 percent of clinical cancer research studies focus on non-white ethnic or racial groups, UC Davis researchers have found.
A new study involving researchers from UC Davis and four other National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers reveals important barriers that limit minority group participation in cancer clinical trials, findings that will be used to refine and launch more effective strategies to assure that more minorities benefit from clinical trials.
Researchers at UC Davis have found that the investigational cancer vaccine tecemotide, when administered with the chemotherapeutic cisplatin, boosted the immune response and reduced the number of tumors in mice with lung cancer. The study also found that radiation treatments did not significantly impair the immune response. The paper was published on March 10 in the journal Cancer Immunology Research, an American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) publication.
UC Davis clinicians and physicists have recommended new strategies to make computed tomography (CT) safer, including adoption of a new metric for dose measurement, ways to manage exposure protocols that differ by CT brand and specific approaches to reduce exposure during needle biopsies. The recommendations are detailed in papers published in the March issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology (JACR).
For the first time, scientists have succeeded in coaxing laboratory cultures of human stem cells to develop into the specialized, unique cells needed to repair a patient’s defective or diseased bladder.
Biospecimen collection among diverse populations lags far behind that of whites. In work aimed at boosting these collection rates, researchers at UC Davis and collaborators at three other institutions found that Asian, African and Hispanic Americans are open to donating specimens for research when clinicians and scientists adopt the right strategies.
In an effort to reduce cancer health disparities among Asian-Americans, UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center now offers individual, in-language education and culturally sensitive materials for every Asian-American cancer patient.
An international team led by researchers at UC Davis has shown that the cyclin B1/Cdk1 protein complex, which plays a key role in cell division, also boosts the mitochondrial activity to power that process. This is the first time the complex has been shown to perform both jobs. This newfound ability could make cyclin B1/Cdk1 an excellent target to control cellular energy production, potentially advancing cancer care and regenerative medicine. The research was published online today in the journal Developmental Cell.
Colorectal cancer screening saves lives, but too few people get tested. In an effort to increase these numbers,researchers from UC Davis and elsewhere investigated whether an individualized interactive multimedia computer program (IMCP) would spur patients to get screened. Tailored to each patient’s knowledge, language (English or Spanish), and perceptions, this sophisticated intervention increased patients’ familiarity with their options and motivation for screening. However, the program generated only a modest increase in actual screening, one no greater than the increase resulting from a simple non-tailored “electronic leaflet.” The paper was published in the Annals of Family Medicine.
Researchers at UC Davis have determined that surgical biopsies can be safely performed on select patients with late-stage non-small cell lung cancer, which should enhance their access to drugs that target specific genetic mutations such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR).
Researchers at UC Davis, University of Massachusetts and Harvard Medical School have created a combination drug that controls both tumor growth and metastasis. By combining a COX-2 inhibitor, similar to Celebrex, and an epoxide hydrolase (sEH) inhibitor, the drug controls angiogenesis (blood vessel formation), limiting a tumor’s ability to grow and spread. The study appears today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers at UC Davis, City of Hope, Taipai Medical University and National Health Research Institutes in Taiwan have discovered how a drug that deprives the cells of a key amino acid specifically kills cancer cells.
Kit Lam and colleagues from UC Davis and other institutions have created dynamic nanoparticles (NPs) that could provide an arsenal of applications to diagnose and treat cancer. Built on an easy-to-make polymer, these particles can be used as contrast agents to light up tumors for MRI and PET scans or deliver chemo and other therapies to destroy tumors. In addition, the particles are biocompatible and have shown no toxicity. The study was published online today in Nature Communications.
Researchers at UC Davis have found that the drug bortezomib effectively treats chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a common and debilitating side effect from allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplants. The trial showed that bortezomib provides better outcomes than existing treatments and does not impair the immune response against residual cancer cells, or the graft-versus-tumor effect (GVT).
Immunotherapy that can be effective against tumors in young, thin mice can be lethal to obese ones, a new study by UC Davis researchers has found. The findings, published online today in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, suggest a possible link between body fat and the risk of toxicity from some types of immunotherapy.
Researchers at UC Davis and other institutions have found that diets rich in whole walnuts or walnut oil slowed prostate cancer growth in mice. In addition, both walnuts and walnut oil reduced cholesterol and increased insulin sensitivity. The walnut diet also reduced levels of the hormone IGF-1, which had been previously implicated in both prostate and breast cancer. The study was published online in the Journal of Medicinal Food.
Scientists have long known the p53 protein suppresses tumors. However, a recent animal study by UC Davis researchers has uncovered a complicated relationship between p53 and another protein, Rbm38, highlighting how the body calibrates protein levels. Too much Rbm38 reduces p53 levels, increasing the risk of cancer. Too little Rbm38 allows p53 overexpression, causing premature aging. The study was published online in the journal PNAS Dec. 15.
Ten months after California legislators enacted a controversial law mandating that radiologists notify women if they have dense breast tissue, UC Davis researchers have found that half of primary care physicians are still unfamiliar with the law and many don’t feel comfortable answering breast density-related questions from patients. The findings, to be published in the March print edition of Journal of the American College of Radiology, suggest that if the law is going to have any significant impact on patient care, primary care providers need more education about breast density and secondary imaging options.
Researchers at UC Davis have developed and characterized a molecule that interferes with the internal regulation of cancer cells, causing them to self-destruct. This novel mechanism was found to be effective against glioma cells – responsible for a usually fatal type of brain cancer – and could be applicable to other highly aggressive cancers.
Researchers at UC Davis have illuminated an important distinction between mice and humans: how human livers heal. The difference centers on a protein called PPARα, which activates liver regeneration. Normally, mouse PPARα is far more active and efficient than the human form, allowing mice to quickly regenerate damaged livers. However, the research shows that protein fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) can boost the regenerative effects of human PPARα. The findings suggest that the molecule could offer significant therapeutic benefits for patients who have had a liver transplant or suffer from liver disease. The study was published in the journal Oncotarget.
Two UC Davis researchers will help run a major national study to improve surveillance practices for patients with small lung nodules identified on CT imaging and extremely low risk for lung cancer.
The UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine have entered into a collaboration with Foundation Medicine, a leading molecular information company. The collaboration brings comprehensive genomic profiling into standard of care at UC Davis, allowing physicians to prescribe the most effective, targeted cancer treatments to patients based on the genomic information specific to each individual’s cancer.
John M. Boone, a UC Davis medical physicist and professor of radiology, has been awarded a $2.88 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to further develop and research computed tomography (CT) to detect breast cancer.
The number of surgeries performed on terminally ill cancer patients has not dropped in recent years ¬, despite more attention to the importance of less invasive care for these patients to relieve symptoms and improve quality of life.
An international team of scientists, led by UC Davis nephrologist Robert Weiss, have used a sophisticated combination of proteomics and metabolomics to show how renal cell carcinoma (RCC) reprograms its metabolism and evades the immune system. In addition, the study found that cancer grade has a major impact on this reprogramming. These results, published online in the journal Cancer Research, point to new therapeutic options for this particularly deadly cancer.
Combing data collected on thousands of California ovarian cancer patients, UC Davis researchers have determined that almost one-third survived at least 10 years after diagnosis.
In findings never before seen in melanoma, a novel combination therapy was found to be highly effective at treating patients with skin metastases, new research from UC Davis has shown.
Researchers at UC Davis, in collaboration with colleagues at Jackson Laboratory, have developed a new way to personalize treatments for aggressive bladder cancer. In early proof-of-concept research, the team took bladder tumors from individual patients, identified actionable mutations and grafted the tumors into mice. From there, the researchers simultaneously tested multiple therapies in the tumor models. Treatments that were effective in the models could then be given to patients. The research was published today in the journal PLOS One.
A costly tool used on nearly all mammograms does not increase cancer detection rates and should no longer be covered by Medicare, argues Joshua Fenton, a family physician and comparative effectiveness researcher in an editorial published online today in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine.
A UC Davis research team has been awarded $15.5 million to build the world’s first total-body positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, which could fundamentally change the way cancers are tracked and treated and put the university on the nation’s leading edge of molecular imaging.
In a study conducted to inform American Cancer Society (ACS) breast cancer screening guidelines, UC Davis researcher Diana L. Miglioretti reports a screening mammogram once every two years is safe for postmenopausal women at average risk of breast cancer.
Researchers at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center have shown that the microRNA, miR-124, reduced tumor growth and increased cell death in castration-resistant prostate cancer. This small RNA fragment hit multiple targets, reducing androgen receptor signaling and reviving the potency of enzalutamide, a treatment for advanced prostate cancer. In addition, miR-124 impeded EZH2 and Src, proteins that contribute to treatment resistance. The research was published online Monday in Cancer Research.