Good news from a past (and hopefully a new near future) WCG project...

Surprising new prospects help advance the fight against neuroblastoma

Prof. Nakagawara, lead researcher of the Help Fight Childhood Cancer project, updates us on the project's status after a remarkable year that included the publication of a breakthrough paper in 'Cancer Medicine'. World Community Grid results have revealed even more potential treatment mechanisms than the team previously thought, and paved the way for a second phase of the project.

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/about_us/viewNewsArticle.do?articleId=413

CJSL

Crunching for a better world...

Two interesting articles abt battle ag cancer:
1)
A virus to combat pancreatic cancerhere
There has been a major step forward in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. A virus modified specifically to destroy cancer cells has recently been tested in vitro and in vivo by a team at INSERM (the French Institute of Health and Medical Research). And the results are reasonably conclusive.

2) More precise targeted therapies to treat cancer
(a trial of 18 mths of crizotinib molecule open great hope)
sorry in french here
Cancer : le pouvoir des thérapies ciblées

both articles source: Institut National du Cancer,France

Translated with google translate it says:

Ovarian cancer is often in an aggressive form. In order to study it more closely, US researchers have developed a mouse model mimicking human tumor. With it, they were able to uncover two genetic mutations associated with this cancer.

ARID1A and PIK3CA. When these two genes are subject to certain mutations, the risk of ovarian cancer has increased dramatically. So much so that 100% of the studied mice with these mutations have developed ovarian cancer. Specifically, "this cancer occurs when ARID1A is less active than usual and that PIK3CA is hyperactive," says Terry Magnuson of the University of North Carolina and lead author of this work. "This combination represents the perfect storm. "This pair of genes is also found in other types of cancers, including endometrial and gastric tumors.

The authors wish to continue their work in order to find a biomarker for this disease. Objective, create a way to screen women with these mutations. "Currently patients discover their tumor at too late a stage," says Terry Magnuson. "If they could know earlier, treatments may be more likely to be effective. »

Australian Scientist find way to diagnose severity of triple negative breast cancer to tailor appropriate level of treatment.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/for...ncer-20150202-1342al.html

"Susan Clark from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and her team have for first the first time translated the methylome of breast cancer, finding distinct patterns associated with different types of breast cancer.

They have also found a way to classify women with the worst type of breast cancer, triple-negative, into two groups; those with a highly aggressive form and those with a lower-risk variety with a longer survival time. At present there is no reliable way to divide triple-negative cancers, which do not respond to targeted treatment, into these sub-groups.

With further testing, methylation signatures may be used as predictive biomarkers that doctors use to prescribe more appropriate treatments for women diagnosed with breast cancer in the future." and other stuff.

Also just google "triple negative cancer Australia" and a host of links will come up.

A NEW VACCINE AG CANCER IS TESTED IN FRANCE

OUEST-FRANCE Journal dated Feb 2 here
Google translated:


The Besançon hospital is testing a new vaccine against cancer


The University Hospital of Besançon announced Monday experimentation on patients of a new anticancer therapeutic vaccine, from June 2015.

The UCPVax vaccine (Universal Cancer Peptide), developed by the team of teachers and Christophe Borg Olivier Adotevi the University Hospital of Besançon, will be tested over a period of about three years of 54 patients with lung cancer.

Activating lymphocytes

Its universal character could allow it to be used to fight against different types of cancers. This universal therapeutic vaccine targets the "telomerase", an enzyme that confers immortality to cancer cells and is present in most cancers, the teachers explained at a press conference.

Active UCPVax CD4 T cells, which are cells of the immune system to fight effective against the tumor, they said.

"This vaccine antigen will stimulate the patient's immunity against the tumor," said Virginie Westeel the pulmonologist.

"This is a vaccine that will help to better understand the immune system of patients" and "improving the effectiveness of existing treatments," said Professor Borg.

An upcoming curratif treatment?

Unlike preventative vaccination, therapeutic vaccination is to stimulate immune responses of patients when the disease has already begun.

This type of anticancer vaccine may have in the future be used as a complementary cure with surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

The team of teachers and Christophe Borg Olivier Adotevi began its work in 2009. The invention of the therapeutic vaccine UCPVax was patented in 2012 by a consortium including the University Hospital of Besançon and the University of Franche-Comté.

Immunotherapy is now one of the most promising approaches in cancer and one of the most dynamic areas of research, according to ARC Foundation.