EurekAlert! Cancer Research

News Releases

25-Jan-2022

Comprehensive framework outlined for addressing early-onset colorectal cancer research

Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The reasons for rising rates of colorectal cancer in people younger than 50 are largely unknown, but a paper by Vanderbilt researchers published Jan. 25 in The Lancet Oncology sets a comprehensive framework for addressing research challenges and patient needs.

Journal: The Lancet Oncology

25-Jan-2022

Faulty BRCA genes linked to prostate and pancreatic cancers

University of Cambridge
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Faulty versions of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are well known to increase the risk of breast cancer in men and women, and in ovarian cancer. Now BRCA1 and BRCA2 have been linked to several other cancers, including those that affect men. A study published today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology has provided the strongest evidence to date of these links and helped researchers estimate more accurately the associated risk.

Journal: Journal of Clinical Oncology
Funder: Cancer Research UK

25-Jan-2022

Stem cell discoveries hold potential to improve cancer treatment

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Two recent discoveries by stem cell scientists at Cedars-Sinai may help make cancer treatment more efficient and shorten the time it takes for people to recover from radiation and chemotherapy.

Journal: Blood
Funder: NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

25-Jan-2022

Quality improvement initiative increases breastfeeding rates in Mississippi

Boston Medical Center
Peer-Reviewed Publication

CHAMPS (Communities and Hospitals Advancing Maternity Practices), a multi-year quality improvement (QI) initiative in the state of Mississippi led by Boston Medical Center (BMC) researchers, has increased breastfeeding rates and reduced racial inequities in breastfeeding. These results, published in Pediatrics, demonstrate that the successful implementation of Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative guidance can lead to increased rates of breastfeeding, skin-to-skin contact for mother and baby immediately after birth, and rooming-in practices (keeping mother and baby together in the same hospital room) while also reducing racial inequities.

Journal: PEDIATRICS
Funder: Bower Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation

25-Jan-2022

Searching for breakthroughs on multiple fronts

University of Cincinnati
Grant and Award Announcement

The University of Cincinnati's Dr. Timothy Phoenix has received three separate grants from philanthropic organizations and the National Institutes of Health to learn more about the genetic workings of pediatric diffuse midline gliomas, a deadly brain tumor.

Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health

25-Jan-2022

Most “pathogenic” genetic variants have a low risk of causing disease

The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai discovered that the chance a pathogenic genetic variant may actually cause a disease is relatively low - about 7 percent. They also found that some variants, such as those associated with breast cancer, are linked to a wide range of risks for disease. The results could alter the way the risks associated with these variants are reported, and one day, help guide the way physicians interpret genetic testing results

Journal: JAMA
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health

25-Jan-2022

New discovery shows how targeting healthy cells could help develop treatments for pancreatic cancer

Worldwide Cancer Research
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Blocking expression of a protein called PKN2 in the healthy cells of a pre-clinical model changes the way pancreatic cancer develops and promotes tumour inflammation, which could help make immunotherapy work better. The researchers now want to investigate this further as a potential drug target for pancreatic cancer.

Journal: Cell Reports
Funder: Worldwide Cancer Research

25-Jan-2022

Donor gives $25 million to establish UNC Lineberger Center for Triple Negative Breast Cancer

UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
Business Announcement

UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center has received a $25 million gift to establish the UNC Lineberger Center for Triple Negative Breast Cancer and to support other key UNC Lineberger initiatives. This is the largest donation in UNC Lineberger’s history, and it enables the cancer center to advance its groundbreaking research of a highly aggressive breast cancer that disproportionately affects Black, Latina and young women and historically has limited research funding.

25-Jan-2022

Probing how proteins pair up inside cells

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Biology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

MIT Biologists have designed a screening method to understand how short stretches of amino acids — called short linear motifs (SLiMs) — selectively bind to certain proteins, and distinguish between binding partners with similar structures. Using the detailed information they gleaned from studying these interactions, the researchers created their own synthetic molecule capable of binding extremely tightly to a protein called ENAH, which is implicated in cancer metastasis.

Journal: eLife

25-Jan-2022

Outstanding research on cancer resistance: Laura Hinze receives Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize for Young Researchers

Goethe University Frankfurt
Grant and Award Announcement

The 24-year-old physician Dr. Laura Hinze from Hannover Medical School receives the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize for Young Researchers 2022, as announced today by the Scientific Council of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation. Laura Hinze is being honoured for her significant contribution to the understanding of signal transduction in cancer cells. She has discovered how leukaemia cells develop resistance to the chemotherapeutic agent asparaginase, thereby presenting a novel target for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), the most common cancer in children. Her discovery also derives a new approach for the treatment of colorectal cancer and other solid tumours.