Experimental drug shows promise against brain, prostate cancers

Posted on 17 May 2013 by Stem Man

An experimental drug currently being tested against breast and lung cancer shows promise in fighting the brain cancer glioblastoma and prostate cancer, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in two preclinical studies.

The drug’s actions, observed in isolated human cells in one trial and in rodents in the other, are especially encouraging because they attacked not only the bulk of the tumor cells but also the rare cancer stem cells that are believed to be responsible for most of a cancer’s growth, said Dr. Jerry Shay, professor of cell biology and a senior co-author of both papers. The glioblastoma study appears in the January issue of Clinical Cancer Research. The prostate cancer study is available online in the International Journal of Cancer.

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Diabetes Medication May Get New Life as Cancer Treatment

Posted on 7 May 2013 by Stem Man

The drug metformin, a mainstay of diabetes care for 15 years, may have a new life as a cancer treatment, researchers said.
In a study in mice, low doses of the drug, combined with a widely used chemotherapy called doxorubicin, shrank breast-cancer tumors and prevented their recurrence more effectively than chemotherapy alone.

The findings add to a growing body of evidence that metformin, marketed as Glugophase by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and available in generic versions, could be a potent antitumor medicine.
They also lend support to an emerging theory that cancer’s ability to survive and resist therapy is regulated by cancer stem cells that drive a tumor’s growth and survival.

Chemotherapy is effective against many tumors, said Kevin Struhl, a Harvard Medical School researcher and principal investigator of the study. “The problem is cancer stem cells acquire resistance” to treatment, he said. “They are able to regenerate the tumor and as a result you end up with a relapse.”
About 5% to 10% of a tumor’s cells are believed to be cancer stem cells, he said.

In the report, being published in the Oct. 1 edition of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, researchers said the combination of metformin and doxorubicin killed both regular cancer cells and cancer stem cells.
In contrast, doxorubicin alone had limited effect on the stem cells.

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Patients’ own stem cells may protect against toxins of chemotherapy

Posted on 28 April 2013 by Stem Man

Chemotherapy saves lives, but it also kills healthy tissue like bone marrow. According to a new study involving three patients with glioblastoma, a deadly cancer of the brain, stem cells from cancer patients’ own blood may protect their bone marrow from the toxic effects of treatment.

Glioblastomas often carry an active form of a gene called MGMT, which is a DNA repair enzyme that protects the cancer cells against chemotherapy. To overcome that protective effect, doctors use benzylguanine, a drug that blocks MGMT – but that drug also makes bone marrow and blood cells vulnerable. For this study, scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Washington took a different approach by transplanting gene-modified stem cells into study participants.

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Stem cell treatment in cancer patients has been greatly improved by the use of a new drug

Posted on 6 April 2013 by Stem Man

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Plerixafor has allowed doctors to collect stem cells from patients where there had been previous difficulties.
The drug, which has only recently been licensed, is being used at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre.

Stem cells therapies are used to treat people with cancer of the blood. The cells are collected and reintroduced to a patient after chemotherapy.
Doctors often encounter problems collecting enough stem cells from about one in 10 cancer patients to undergo treatment.

Plerixafor has, so far, had a 100% success rate in allowing doctors at the cancer centre to collect enough cells from patients who fall into this category.
Blood specialist, Dr Kenneth Douglas, explained how the drug worked.

“Basically it blocks a chemical scent that stem cells sniff for that tells them they’re in the bone marrow,” he said.
“If you block that chemical scent they get confused and agitated and they think they are not in the bone marrow any more and they start wandering into the blood stream looking for the bone marrow.”

When more stem cells “start wandering into the blood” doctors are able to collect them for future treatment.
One patient who has benefited from this approach is retired professional golfer, Billy McCondachie.

He said his age was a barrier to potential stem cell treatment.
“We were only able to get about half of my stem cells out until Dr Douglas came along with this new drug,” he said.

“One could say that pretty much saved my life.”
The centre in Glasgow has now treated 13 people with the drug and every one has been able to proceed with stem cell treatment.

from BBC news

Source of cancer stem cells’ resistance to radiation discovered at Stanford

Posted on 26 March 2013 by Stem Man

Much to the dismay of patients and physicians, cancer stem cells — tiny powerhouses that generate and maintain tumor growth in many types of cancers — are relatively resistant to the ionizing radiation often used as therapy for these conditions. Part of the reason, say researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine, is the presence of a protective pathway meant to shield normal stem cells from DNA damage. When the researchers blocked this pathway, the cells became more susceptible to radiation.

“Our ultimate goal is to come up with a therapy that knocks out the cancer stem cells,” said Robert Cho, MD, a clinical instructor of pediatrics. “If you irradiate a tumor and kill a lot of it but leave the cancer stem cells behind, the tumor has the ability to grow back.” As a result, patients can relapse months or years after seemingly successful treatment.

Cho and radiation oncologist and post-doctoral fellow Maximilian Diehn, MD, PhD, are co-first authors of the research, which was published on Feb. 4 in Nature. They collaborated with scientists at Stanford and City of Hope National Medical Center to conduct the research. They studied breast epithelial stem cells from humans and mice to unravel why cancer stem cells are more resistant to radiation than other cancer cells.

“Since cancer stem cells appear to be responsible for driving and maintaining tumor growth in many tumors, it is critical to understand the mechanisms by which these cells resist commonly used therapies such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy,” said Diehn. “Ultimately, we hope to improve patient outcomes by developing therapeutic approaches that directly target cancer stem cells or that overcome their resistance mechanisms.”

The origin of cancer stem cells is still under debate. Some may arise from normal adult stem cells gone awry. Others may represent specialized cells from adult tissues that have acquired a stem-cell-like state through a series of mutations. What’s clear is that cancer stem cells can reconstitute an entire tumor cell population when transplanted into an immune-deficient animal, and destroying them is likely to be critical in order to stop the growth and spread of the disease.

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