Cancer vaccines show promise at last

Article Abstract:

After nearly two decades of research in immunotherapy, the manipulation of the patient's immune system to fight off cancer, there are recent studies showing that metastasis, or the spreading of tumor cells to distant parts of the body, can be inhibited after treatment with a cancer vaccine. This has been shown in cancers such as melanoma (cancer of melanocytes, cells of the skin that produce a black or brown pigment) and colon and kidney cancers. The vaccines are developed using cells from the patient's own cancer. The cancer cells, obtained by surgery, are treated with radiation to prevent them from dividing. The cells are then returned to the patient as a vaccine, along with drugs that stimulate the patient's immune system. The patient's immune system is activated against the tumor cells and can destroy the cancer cells that are capable of dividing. Investigators have used different drugs to stimulate the immune system but the optimum therapy has not been determined. In trials with colon or rectal cancer, more than half of the patients treated with the vaccine did not develop metastases. In patients with melanomas that had spread, about one-quarter showed complete or partial remission after treatment with the vaccine. One-fifth to one-fourth of patients with kidney cancer that had metastasized also showed complete or partial remission after treatment with the vaccine. In a preliminary trial, 80 percent of the cancerous patients who were treated with the vaccine developed an immune response to the cancer cells. The side effects of the treatments are minimal. The studies are too new to establish five-year survival rates, which are important when assessing the true value of a treatment.

Colorectal cancer, Drug therapy, Vaccines, Metastasis, Cancer metastasis, Melanoma, Kidney cancer

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Estrogen use linked to breast cancer

Article Abstract:

The use of long-term estrogen replacement therapy for treating symptoms of menopause may lead to increased risk of breast cancer, according to a new study from Sweden. Estrogen therapy has been increasingly used in the US to protect against the loss of minerals in the bones (osteoporosis) and cardiovascular problems that occur following the onset of menopause. The new study links risk of breast cancer from estrogen to the length of usage. After nine years of treatment, the risk becomes statistically significant, at which point the relative risk of breast cancer is nearly doubled. This study also examines the risks of breast cancer when the regimen of estrogen replacement therapy includes the combination of progestin (progesterone) with estrogen. Physicians have suspected that this combination could be more natural, and because therapy with estrogen alone has been linked to uterine cancer, this treatment might reduce the risks. However, the findings for combined treatment suggest that it may actually increase the risk of breast cancer over the risk of treatment by estrogen alone. Many in the scientific community are not surprised by this finding because estrogen has a general cancer-causing effect, in part because it stimulates the growth of epithelial cells such as those found in the gland and ducts of the breast. Despite this study, opinion on estrogen use for symptoms of menopause is divided. In the absence of a definitive statement, a woman's decision regarding replacement therapy is increasingly more difficult.

Sweden, Physiological aspects, Breast cancer, Estrogen, Estrogens, Progestational hormones

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Cancer gene research wins medicine Nobel

Article Abstract:

J. Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus of the University of California, San Francisco, were awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Their research showed that normal cells contain genes that could cause cancer if they malfunctioned. Previous to their findings, these cancer-causing genes, known as oncogenes, were thought to be present only in retroviruses, tumor viruses that contain RNA (ribonucleic acid). Bishop and Varmus showed that the viruses acquired the oncogenes from cellular genes. The cellular genes are normal genes that function in cell growth and differentiation. The genes are somehow altered such that they become cancerous. Since Bishop and Varmus' initial work, over 50 cellular oncogenes have been identified. Their work provides understanding of the genetic basis of cancer and the biochemical pathways leading to cancer, or abnormal growth of cells. This research provides possible ways of treating or preventing cancer. Physicians are currently using oncogenes as tools for diagnosis and prognosis. For example, the levels of protein coded for by an oncogene present in certain breast cancers is used as a tool for the prognosis of the patient and as a guideline for types of treatment.

Achievements and awards, Genetic aspects, Cancer genetics, Carcinogenesis, Retroviruses, Nobel prizes, Varmus, Harold E., 1989 AD, Bishop, J. Michael

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