Some Breast Cancers Fail to Respond to Treatments, Why?

Breast Cancer

Most breast cancers are estrogen receptor-positive, meaning that signals received from estrogen, a hormone, promote the growth of the tumors. To stop these cancers from spreading, estrogen inhibitors are usually prescribed. But what happens when tumors develop treatment resistance?

Studies suggest that "approximately 70 percent" of all the breast cancers are estrogen receptor-positive (ER-positive).

These types of cancer are typically treated with drugs — such as tamoxifen and fulvestrant — that either lower the levels of the hormone or inhibit the estrogen receptors to prevent the tumors from spreading. This is known as endocrine therapy.

However, around a third of the people treated with these drugs develop resistance to them, which negatively impacts their chances of survival. The mechanisms that underlie the tumors' resistance to therapy is not well understood and currently poses a major challenge.

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Breast Cancer: The Body of Knowledge Grows

Scientists’ understanding of the genetics/genomics of breast cancer continues to grow; a revolution is underway both in terms of categorizing breast cancers and targeting treatment that will be effective in individual cases. New perspectives are being offered on the interpretation of biopsies, too. Here is a round-up of some very recent studies.

Genetic variants alter cells’ response to estrogen

An international study of almost 120,000 women has newly identified five genetic variants affecting risk of breast cancer, all of which are believed to influence how breast cells respond to the female sex hormone estrogen.

Estrogen acts as a trigger, binding to a molecule known as an estrogen receptor in most breast cells and triggering a cascade of signals that cause the cell to behave normally. However, the estrogen receptor is switched off in some cells and these do not respond to the hormone.

Read more: Breast Cancer: The Body of Knowledge Grows

Source: MedicalLaboratoryObserver

Cervical Screening of ‘Limited’ Use in Under 25s

The National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP) has been successful for the most part, except for those aged 20-24, according to a new report from Cancer Council NSW.

Incidence of squamous cell carcinoma and overall cervical cancer rates have declined dramatically in women aged 25-plus since the inception of the program in 1991.

“Squamous cell cancer rates in women aged 25 years or more fell by more than 50% but have now plateaued among women aged 25-69 years,” writes Megan Smith and Professor Karen Canfell in the MJA.

But among those aged 20-24, screening has made no difference to cancer rates.

Read more: Cervical Screening of ‘Limited’ Use in Under 25s

Source: 6minutes

Throat Cancer: Get the Facts

The throat is often described as having many different parts. This article looks at two of the more common places throat cancer can occur: the pharynx and the larynx.

1. The pharynx is most commonly thought of as the throat. It is a tube around 5 inches long that leads from behind the nose to the food pipe.
2. 
   
3. The larynx is also known as the voicebox. It is a short passage just below the pharynx. The larynx holds the vocal cords and a small piece of tissue called the epiglottis.

The epiglottis moves to cover the top of the larynx so food cannot enter it when people breathe.

Read more: Throat Cancer: Get the Facts

Cancer in the throat is uncommon when compared with other forms of cancer. Early symptoms of
throat cancer include a long-lasting cough and pain when swallowing.

Source: medicalnewstoday

Things Your Dermatologist Wants You to Know About Skin Cancer

Prevent the most common type of cancer by simply knowing its causes and signs

Each year more new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed than the combined incidence of cancers of the breast, prostate, lung and colon, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation. The occurrence continues to rise. One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of a lifetime.

This may be due to common misconceptions that sunscreen lotions provide adequate protection and that tanning booths are harmless. Brazil and Australia have banned indoor tanning altogether, and many more don't allow it for people under 18. 

But melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer, is also the least common, Dr. Elizabeth Hale, senior vice president of the Foundation and board-certified dermatologist, says. All types are easily treatable if caught in advance. “Men have the highest mortality rate because they don’t get their skin checked often enough,” she adds.

Also, while 90 percent of non-melanoma skin cancers are associated with exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun, studies have shown that benign lesions have been the cause of a large increase in reported incidence of the disease.

Read more: Things Your Dermatologist Wants You to Know About Skin Cancer

Source: BiomedicalVideoSlides

Eating Walnuts May Help Prevent Colon Cancer

A team of researchers from UConn Health and The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine found that eating walnuts can reduce one's risk of getting colon cancer.

In the study, mice that were fed walnuts (totaling seven percent to 10.5 percent of their total calories) developed fewer instances of colon cancer.

Seven to 10.5 percent of daily total calories coming from walnuts is equivalent to a human eating about an ounce of walnuts every day.

Walnut consumption

"Our results show for the first time that walnut consumption may reduce colon tumor development," said Daniel W. Rosenberg of UConn Health, principal investigator on the study.

Read more: Eating Walnuts May Help Prevent Colon Cancer

Could walnuts be the key to preventing colon cancer?

Source: medicalnewstoday

BRCA1 Gene Mutation May Raise Risk of Aggressive Endometrial Cancer

The risk of aggressive serous or serous-like endometrial cancer may be higher for women with a BRCA1 gene mutation, even after undergoing risk-reducing surgery involving the removal of the fallopian tubes and ovaries. This is the finding of a new study published in JAMA Oncology.

However, the study found that a mutated BRCA1 gene did not increase women's overall risk of uterine cancer if they had undergone the risk-reducing procedure, called risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO).

RRSO is the surgical removal of the fallopian tube and ovaries, and it is sometimes recommended for women who are at high risk of breast or ovarian cancers as a result of BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations.

Read more: BRCA1 Gene Mutation May Raise Risk of Aggressive Endometrial Cancer

Researchers say women with a BRCA1 mutation are at higher risk for aggressive endometrial cancer,
even after undergoing risk-reducing surgery.

Source: medicalnewstoday.

Cancer Breakthrough? Novel Insight into Metastasis Could Offer New Treatments

Researchers from the United Kingdom may have made a breakthrough in cancer treatment, after discovering an unusual mechanism by which cancer cells spread and survive in the body.

In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers reveal how two molecules join forces to help cancer cells survive as they metastasize.

Metastasis is the process by which cancer cells break away from the primary tumor and spread to other parts of the body through the bloodstream or lymph system.

Once cancer has spread, the disease becomes much more challenging to treat Chemotherapy, hormone therapy, radiotherapy, and other treatments can yield success for some metastatic cancers, but for most, the prognosis is poor.

Read more: Cancer Breakthrough? Novel Insight into Metastasis Could Offer New Treatments

Source: medicalnewstoday

How Red Meat Can Affect Cancer Risk

You may have heard the news recently that researchers have found links between eating red meat and increased risk of certain cancers. But what does this mean for you? Should you say good-bye forever to burgers, steaks and bacon?

These latest concerns are based on an October 2015 report from the World Health Organization (WHO), which had 22 experts in 10 countries review about 800 epidemiological studies to look for a connection between red meat and processed meats and cancer. It found heightened risk between these meats—especially processed meats—and some cancers, particularly colorectal cancer.

WHO didn’t say you should ban red meat or processed meats from your diet completely, but it did advise limiting the amount you eat. Here are some of the key findings from the WHO study.

Read more: How Red Meat Can Affect Cancer Risk

Source: healthgrades

Breast Cancer: Existing Drug Shows Promise for Prevention in High-Risk Women

Researchers have identified an existing drug that they say has the potential to prevent or delay breast cancer for women at high risk of developing the disease.

In a study published the journal Nature Medicine, researchers reveal how the drug denosumab halted the growth of pre-cancerous cells in breast tissue of women with a faulty BRCA1 gene.

Women with a BRCA1 gene mutation are at significantly greater risk for breast and ovarian cancers; around 55-65 percent of women with such a mutation will develop the disease by the age of 70, according to the National Cancer Institute, compared with 12 percent of those in the general population.

Read more:  Breast Cancer: Existing Drug Shows Promise for Prevention in High-Risk Women

Researchers found the drug denosumab stopped the growth of cells that are a precursor to breast cancer
in women with a BRCA1 gene mutation.

Source: medicalnewstoday

Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs)

Your doctor may order a test for circulating tumor cells (CTCs) to help guide your cancer care.

One of the major challenges in treating cancer is getting “all” of the cancer, including the parts we cannot see. Even if surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation removes all traces of known cancer, there is still a risk of the cancer returning, often in a distant location in the body. This may occur as a result of CTCs.

Circulating tumor cells were first found in the blood under the microscope nearly 150 years ago. They are cancer cells from the primary tumor that escaped into the bloodstream to circulate around the body. As a result, these cells can serve as seeds for new areas of cancer to grow in distant organs. This is known asmetastasis.

Not all CTCs have the ability to land and establish a new metastasis in a distant organ; some may remain dormant (inactive) or be controlled by the immune system for years, sometimes forever.

Read more: Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs)

Source: jamanetwork

Scissor protein responsible for cancer spread

Aggressive cancer cells have been found to express higher amounts of a certain protein by scientists at the University of Bergen.

PITPNC1 controls a process where cancer cells secrete molecules which cut through proteins outside cell walls like scissors. This allows the cancerous cells to then enter the tissue and begin dividing and multiplying at a new site.

Dr Nils Halberg, a researcher at the University of Bergen said: “We discovered that the aggressive cancer cells that are spreading in colon, breast, and skin cancer contained a much higher portion of the protein PITPNC1, than the non-aggressive cancer cells.”

Using this knowledge, scientists can predict which cancer cells are becoming more aggressive and are likely to metastasize.

Read more: Scissor protein responsible for cancer spread

Source: labnews

Alcohol and processed meat linked to stomach cancer

Drinking alcohol, eating processed meat and being overweight increase the risk of developing stomach cancers, according to a major new scientific report released by the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund.

The Continuous Update Project (CUP) report was led by the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF).

Scientists systematically gathered and analyzed data relating to stomach cancer, after which a panel of leading international experts evaluated the results independently.

Worldwide, there were 952,000 cases of stomach cancer in 2012, or 7% of all new cancer cases.

Stomach cancer is the third most common cause of cancer death. It affects men twice as much as women, and it is more common among older people, with the average age of diagnosis in the US being 72 years.

In Europe and the US, the survival rate is 25-28%, rising to 63% if it is diagnosed early. But symptoms may not appear until the later stages, and some 70% of cases worldwide are diagnosed late, leading to a lower survival rate. Eastern Asia and China are particularly affected.

Read more: Alcohol and processed meat linked to stomach cancer

Lifestyle factors are linked to stomach cancer.

Source: medicalnewstoday

Novel Biomarker Predicts Breast Cancer Risk in Asymptomatic Women

A biomarker has been identified that may allow clinicians to predict the risk of an asymptomatic woman eventually developing breast cancer.

To identify this disease indicator, investigators at Harvard Medical School studied the association between breast cancer risk and the frequency of mammary epithelial cells expressing the proteins p27 (Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1B), estrogen receptor (ER), and Ki67 (Marker of proliferation Ki-67) in normal breast tissue from 302 women (69 breast cancer cases, 233 controls) who had been initially diagnosed with benign breast disease.

Immunofluorescence assays for p27, ER, and Ki67 were performed on tissue microarrays constructed from benign biopsies containing normal mammary epithelium and scored by computational image analysis.

Read more: Novel Biomarker Predicts Breast Cancer Risk in Asymptomatic Women

Source: gettyimages

Colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer had a low incidence several decades ago. However, it has become a predominant cancer and now accounts for approximately 10% of cancer-related mortality in western countries. The ‘rise’ of colorectal cancer in developed countries can be attributed to the increasingly ageing population, unfavourable modern dietary habits and an increase in risk factors, such as smoking, low physical exercise and obesity. New treatments for primary and metastatic colorectal cancer have emerged, providing additional options for patients; these treatments include laparoscopic surgery for primary disease, more-aggressive resection of metastatic disease (such as liver and pulmonary metastases), radiotherapy for rectal cancer, and neoadjuvant and palliative chemotherapies. However, these new treatment options have had limited impact on cure rates and long-term survival. For these reasons, and the recognition that colorectal cancer is long preceded by a polypoid precursor, screening programmes have gained momentum. This Primer provides an overview of the current state of the art of knowledge on the epidemiology and mechanisms of colorectal cancer, as well as on diagnosis and treatment.

Introduction

We live in an era with improved worldwide average living standards and increased access to adequate health care that has considerably improved the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. These measures have had an effect on the average life expectancy in most regions of the world. However, although death rates from communicable diseases have improved globally as a result of these medical improvements, cancer-related mortality has increased by almost 40% over the past 40 years. A further 60% increase is expected in the next 15 years, with 13 million people estimated to die of cancer in 2030. The main causes of cancer-related mortality have also changed, attributable to alterations in disease incidence, the introduction of screening programmes and therapeutic improvements. Colorectal cancer was rather rare in 1950, but has become a predominant cancer in western countries, now accounting for approximately 10% of cancer-related mortality. Reasons explaining this increased incidence include an ageing population and the preponderance of poor dietary habits, smoking, low physical activity and obesity in western countries. The change in incidence is not only apparent in the rates of sporadic disease but also in some familial cancer syndromes. Indeed, given that the rates of Helicobacter pyloriinfection (a causative factor of gastric cancer) have fallen dramatically, colorectal cancer is now the predominant presentation of Lynch syndrome (a hereditary non-polyposis type of colorectal cancer), whereas carriers of this syndrome used to be predominantly affected by gastric cancer.

Read more: Colorectal cancer

Source: krmc

Microbes and Cancer.

Understanding cancer’s relationship with the human microbiome could transform immune-modulating therapies.

In 2013, two independent teams of scientists, one in Maryland and one in France, made a surprising observation: both germ-free mice and mice treated with a heavy dose of antibiotics responded poorly to a variety of cancer therapies typically effective in rodents. The Maryland team, led by Romina Goldszmid and Giorgio Trinchieri of the National Cancer Institute, showed that both an investigational immunotherapy and an approved platinum chemotherapy shrank a variety of implanted tumor types and improved survival to a far greater extent in mice with intact microbiomes. The French group, led by INSERM’s Laurence Zitvogel, got similar results when testing the long-standing chemotherapeutic agent cyclophosphamide in cancer-implanted mice, as well as in mice genetically engineered to develop tumors of the lung.

The findings incited a flurry of research and speculation about how gut microbes contribute to cancer cell death, even in tumors far from the gastrointestinal tract. The most logical link between the microbiome and cancer is the immune system. Resident microbes can either dial up inflammation or tamp it down, and can modulate immune cells’ vigilance for invaders. Not only does the immune system appear to be at the root of how the microbiome interacts with cancer therapies, it also appears to mediate how our bacteria, fungi, and viruses influence cancer development in the first place.

Read more: Microbes and Cancer.

Source: © Istock/Kateja_FN/Frank Ramspott