Cancer - February 2014 Archives

Study targets EGFR and FGFR cellular pathways to treat rare disease SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Feb. 13, 2014 — Physicians at Mayo Clinic’s Center for Individualized Medicine and ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers have shed light on a new mechanism by which prostate cancer develops in men. Central to development of nearly all prostate cancer cases are malfunctions in the androgen receptor — the cellular component that binds to male hormones. The research team has shown that SPOP, a protein that is most frequently mutated in human prostate cancers, is a key regulator of androgen receptor activity that prevents uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate and thus helps prevent cancer. The findings appear in the journal Cell Reports. “By uncovering this new and important pathway of androgen receptor destruction, we may one day be able to develop more effective treatments for a substantial proportion of prostate cancer patients who have developed resistance to standard antiandrogen therapy,” says Haojie Huang, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic biochemist and senior author of the paper. SPOP mutations have been detected in approximately 15 percent of prostate cancer cases. In addition, it has been shown that in about 35 percent of prostate cancers, the SPOP protein is expressed at abnormally low levels. Despite its prevalence in prostate cancer, it was not known whether or how SPOP defects contributed to tumor development. What the research team discovered is that SPOP is an enzyme that selectively destroys androgen receptor protein. Failure to do so due to alterations in SPOP results in overabundance of androgen receptor, a master regulator of prostate cancer cell growth.   The Mayo Clinic research team made four major discoveries: The antiandrogen receptor is a bona fide degradation substrate of SPOP. Androgen receptor splicing variants are resistant to SPOP-mediated degradation. Prostate cancer-associated SPOP mutants cannot bind to and promote androgen receptor degradation. Androgens antagonize, but antiandrogens promote SPOP-mediated degradation of androgen receptor.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Patients with a common form of lung cancer — lung squamous cell carcinoma — have very few treatment options. That situation may soon change. A team of cancer biologists at Mayo Clinic in Florida is reporting in the Feb. 10 issue of Cancer Cell the discovery of two oncogenes that work together to sustain a population of cells in lung squamous cell carcinoma, which may be responsible for the lethality of the disease. When these cells, termed cancer stem cells, are inhibited, tumors cannot develop. Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Fields are available in the downloads. http://youtu.be/ZdSIwoL0i80 “Cancer stem cells are a small population of cells in a tumor that can self-renew and grow indefinitely. They resist most treatments and are thought to be responsible for relapse,” says the study’s senior author, Alan P. Fields, Ph.D., the Monica Flynn Jacoby Professor of Cancer Studies at Mayo Clinic in Florida. “If you can shut down cancer stem cells, you may be able to stop relapse after therapy,” he says.

ROCHESTER, Minn — Feb. 4, 2014 — A new Mayo Clinic study found that among middle-aged men and women, 40 to 60 years old, the overall incidence of skin cancer increased nearly eightfold between 1970 and 2009, according to a study published in the January issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RHRoO-YJqs Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Brewer are available in the downloads. “The most striking finding was among women in that age group,” says dermatologist Jerry Brewer, M.D., principal investigator of the study. “Women between 40 and 50 showed the highest rates of increase we’ve seen in any group so far.” There has been widespread concern in recent years about the rising incidence of melanoma, which affects 75,000 Americans annually and results in nearly 9,000 deaths. Few studies, however, have investigated which age brackets of adults are most at risk. Dr. Brewer’s team conducted a population-based study using records from the Rochester Epidemiology Project, a collaboration between healthcare providers in southeastern Minnesota that allows researchers to study health and illnesses in the community. They found that among white, non-Hispanic adults in the 40 to 60 age group the incidence of skin cancer increased 4.5-fold among men and 24-fold among women.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdi8vCwvfA4 A clinical trial co-led by researchers at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and Wake Forest School of Medicine has found that adding chemotherapy following radiation treatment improves ...