​ In breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, hepatic carcinoma, and a number of other malignancies, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are the most prominent cell type within the tumor microenvironment. The fact that they assist the cancer's survival in many ways makes them candidates for targeted therapy. Although CAFs can be identified through their shape and structure, commonly used cellular biomarkers have not been shown to feature in all of them. This fact has raised an important question: are ...

A new study suggests that epigenetic cancer treatments may do more harm than good. Epigenetic treatments impact epigenetic modifiers, genes which modify the epigenome—the collection of chemical compounds controlling genetic expression—by causing DNA methylation, altering chromatin structure, or modifying post-translational chromatin. Because tumors frequently have epigenetic modifiers that are mutated or altered in their expression, these genes have become a focus of cancer research. But what is...

Because the stroma—the connective tissue that supports an organ's functioning cells—surrounding a tumor provides the tumor with nutrients and helps to protect it from the immune system, patients whose tumors are rich in stroma have a poorer prognosis. Researchers have found a potential solution to this problem by modifying an existing oncolytic virus so that it can attack not only carcinoma cells but also cancer-associated fibroblasts, stromal cells that support the tumor and shield it from...

By screening existing Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved compounds, a research team has found that flunarizine, a drug previously approved for the treatment of migraines and epilepsy, can inhibit tumor growth in the highly aggressive breast cancer subtype known as basal-like breast cancer (BLBC). Basal-like breast cancer has a poor prognosis and lacks effective therapies. It typically does not express any of the three hormone receptors—estrogen receptor alpha, progesterone receptor, or ...

Researchers have demonstrated the efficacy of a new treatment targeting genetic mutations in patients with chemotherapy-resistant secondary glioblastoma (sGBM), a rare and deadly form of brain cancer. Low-grade gliomas progress into sGBM, which has limited treatment options and a 5-year survival rate under 10%. Secondary glioblastoma is treated with temozolomide (TMZ), a chemotherapy drug. Upon relapse, which happens in most patients, genetic mutations enable sGBM tumors to resist the drug's eff...