Compound That Kills Lymphoma Cells Discovered

A compound that kills specific lymphoma cells has been discovered by an international research team, co-led by the OCI (Ontario Cancer Institute), Canada. This discovery will speed up the development of targeted medications to fight the most common forms of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

You can read about this in the online journal Cancer Cell (DOI 0.1016/j.ccr.2009.12.050).

The report shows how the researchers used a chemical compound to block protein BCL6 – which is known to cause cancer in approximately half of all non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cases; the 5^th most common form of cancer in Canada.

“We have identified a new avenue for drug development. It is exciting because until now, the prevailing wisdom has been that cancer proteins such as BCL6 would not respond in this way to chemical manipulation. We have proven otherwise,” said co-principal investigator Dr. Gilbert Privé, an OCI senior scientist who specializes in analyzing the structure and function of cancer-related proteins.

The scientists started their quest using 3-dimensional crystallography and computer-aided drug design to filter more than one million potential compounds to about 100 that warranted further investigation. They eventually narrowed the field, down to 10 and, finally, to the one compound that proved successful. In laboratory experiments, there was even better news – not only did the compound kill lymphoma cells, it was is non-toxic. Read more

Genetic Factors Can Increase Leukaemia Risk Seven-Fold

Scientists have found four new regions of the genome that increase the risk of a common blood cancer, according to results published in the journal Nature Genetics.

Professor Richard Houlston and his team at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) have now found the location of 10 genetic variants, common in the European population, that are associated with an increased risk of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL).

Professor Houlston’s team last year proved that people’s genes could make them more susceptible to CLL, identifying six regions of the genome more common among sufferers. In the latest paper, also funded by the charity Leukaemia Research, his team have identified another four regions that influence an individual’s risk of CLL.

CLL is the most common form of leukemiain western countries, with around 2,700 people in the UK diagnosed each year with the disease, most after age 55.

The genetic factors identified in the latest study are all common in the population, and each increases the risk of CLL by between 1.2 and 1.4-fold. Each person may carry from a few of the identified risk factors to all the risk factors. Importantly, the more genetic factors carried, the higher their risk of developing CLL. Read more

Blood Test May Aid In Lung Cancer Diagnosis And Reduce Unnecessary Invasive Procedures

Of the nearly 150,000 abnormal chest X-rays performed each year in the United States, 25 percent of patients will display only benign lung pathologies on further surgical examination.

This false-positive rate has important clinical implications in cost and side effects. A recent report in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that CT scans, often used as a follow-up to X-rays, were linked to cancer because of their high doses of radiation.

Steven Dubinett, M.D., professor of medicine and pathology, and director of the Lung Cancer Research Program at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, said that while findings regarding the detrimental effects of imaging studies like CT scanning are still somewhat controversial, the need for more accurate testing is not.

In a study presented at the AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer, Dubinett and colleagues assembled a 40-marker panel of potential lung cancer biomarkers based on previous investigations from 90 patients with lung cancer as well as 56 control patients thought to be at high risk due to their smoking histories.

“The diagnosis of an indeterminate pulmonary lesion can be difficult, and current methods for confirming an abnormal imaging study include invasive procedures for biopsies,” said Dubinett. “We anticipate that in the future, blood tests will be clinically relevant and lead to reduced use of more invasive diagnostic measures.” Read more

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