Wednesday, September 19 2012
Researchers at Harvard Medical School and it's affiliates have been doing some very exciting work in the battle against cancer. Below are three links to recent articles exemplifying the innovative work being done. The first, is an article detailing what researchers at Brigham and Women's are doing to fight melanoma, which is the 5th leading cause of cancer deaths and the leading cause of skin cancer deaths. The team of doctors have discovered that mutated melanoma cells are very similar to healthy cells except they lack a specific chemical mark in the genome. By injecting the mutated cells with this chemical mark, researchers have found that the growth of the mutated cells was stunted. This has huge implications into the treatment of melanoma, and could potentially be a a very big breakthrough for scientists. The next article, explains how researchers are targeting the signature "fingerprint" of cancer stem cells. Tumors develop from the unchecked growth of these cancerous cells, which resemble healthy cells except for a slight mutation. This team of doctors has identified the signature difference of many different types of cancer cells, and this should prove as a starting point on how to attack the cells. By attacking the mutation in the cell, doctors can attempt to keep tumors from growing. The last article, details how researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have found that current drugs or drugs that are currently being developed have had success in battling squamous cell lung cancer. Squamous cell lung cancer kills 50,000 Americans every year, most of whom were smokers. Similar to the two previous article, this team at Dana-Farber have discovered the mutations in squamous cell lung cancer, and have successfully battled those mutations with drugs that are already available. This could be a major breakthrough in the treatment of lung cancer. To Read more about stunting the growth of melanoma cells: Click Here To Read more about cancer stem-cells and their signature "fingerprint": Click Here To Read more about battling squamous cell lung cancer: Click Here