http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Tumor suppressor genes make proteins that help control cell growth. Mutations in these genes that generate nonfunctional proteins can contribute to tumor development and progression. One of the most well-known tumor suppressor genes is BRACA1, mutations in which are linked to breast cancer. Ze-Guang Han and colleagues, at the Chinese National Human Genome Center at Shanghai, People's Republic of China, have now identified SCARA5 as a candidate tumor suppressor gene in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a form of liver cancer that is the fifth most common cancer worldwide. http://www.physorg.com/news180084963.html Medicine & Health Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:40:02 EST news180084963 Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine and colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern and Case Western University have determined how the protein Mdm2, which is elevated in late-stage cancers, disables genes that suppress the growth of tumors. The finding may lead to the development of new drugs for late stage breast cancer and other difficult to treat malignancies. http://www.physorg.com/news179416357.html Medicine & Health Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:53:31 EST news179416357 Researchers from Yale University and Mirna Therapeutics, Inc., reversed the growth of lung tumors in mice using a naturally occurring tumor suppressor microRNA. The study reveals that a tiny bit of RNA may one day play a big role in cancer treatment, and provides hope for future patients battling one of the most prevalent and difficult to treat cancers. http://www.physorg.com/news179390588.html Medicine & Health Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:43:35 EST news179390588 A large proportion of late-stage breast cancers that have spread to other parts of the body (metastatic breast cancers) are characterized by overexpression of the protein Mdm2. http://www.physorg.com/news178952767.html Medicine & Health Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:10:01 EST news178952767 A powerful new breast cancer treatment could result from packaging one of the newer drugs that inhibits cancer's hallmark wild growth with another that blocks a primordial survival technique in which the cancer cell eats part of itself, researchers say. http://www.physorg.com/news177603580.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:50:02 EST news177603580 Researchers at Queen's University have found a link between two genes involved in cancer formation in humans, by examining the genes in worms. The groundbreaking discovery provides a foundation for how tumor-forming genes interact, and may offer a drug target for cancer treatment. http://www.physorg.com/news177089021.html Biology Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:25:02 EST news177089021 Researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center showed for the first time that the loss or decreased expression of the tumor suppressor gene PTEN plays a central role in the malignant transformation of benign nerve tumors called neurofibromas into a malignant and extremely deadly form of sarcoma. http://www.physorg.com/news174645751.html Medicine & Health Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:20:01 EST news174645751 Researchers from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have uncovered a large, new cache of genes that act as built-in barriers against cancer. Known as tumor suppressors, the newly identified genes and the insight that they provide into devising new therapeutic strategies against lymphoma are described in a paper published this week in Cancer Cell. http://www.physorg.com/news174645486.html Medicine & Health Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:38:30 EST news174645486 A tumor-suppressing protein snatches up an important cancer-promoting enzyme and tags it with molecules that condemn it to destruction, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports this week in the journal Molecular Cell. http://www.physorg.com/news174312605.html Medicine & Health Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:12:09 EST news174312605 (PhysOrg.com) -- A tiny bit of genetic material with no previously known function may hold the key to stopping the spread of cancer, researchers at Yale School of Medicine and Sichuan University in Chengdu, China report in two papers in the September 7-11 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.physorg.com/news171895852.html Medicine & Health Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:53:00 EST news171895852 A new type of stem cell discovered in the prostate of adult mice can be a source of prostate cancer, according to a new study by researchers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. http://www.physorg.com/news171721946.html Medicine & Health Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:10:01 EST news171721946 In a biological rendition of fiction's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, researchers from the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida and Harvard Medical School have found that a protein thought to protect against cancer development can actually spur the spread of tumors. http://www.physorg.com/news171195788.html Medicine & Health Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:24:06 EST news171195788 Research led by Suresh Alahari, PhD, Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has shown for the first time that a tiny piece of RNA appears to play a major role in the development of invasive breast cancer and identified a gene that appears to inhibit invasive breast cancer. The research is published in the August 21, 2009 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. http://www.physorg.com/news169915241.html Medicine & Health Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:41:26 EST news169915241 Researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah have uncovered new information on the notion that sugar "feeds" tumors. The findings may also have implications for other diseases such as diabetes. The research is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.physorg.com/news169742937.html Medicine & Health Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:50:11 EST news169742937 Researchers from Columbia University Medical Center's Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a protein that activates brain stem cells to make new neurons - but that may be hijacked later in life to cause brain cancer in humans. The protein called Huwe1 normally functions to eliminate other unnecessary proteins and was found to act as a tumor suppressor in brain cancer. http://www.physorg.com/news169735638.html Medicine & Health Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:00:01 EST news169735638 A collaborative study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies uncovered that the tumor suppressor p53, which made its name as "guardian of the genome", not only stops cells that could become cancerous in their tracks but also controls somatic cell reprogramming. http://www.physorg.com/news169051420.html Medicine & Health Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:44:33 EST news169051420 La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology researchers studying an enzyme believed to play a role in allergy onset, instead have discovered its previously unknown role as a tumor suppressor that may be important in myeloproliferative diseases and some types of lymphoma and leukemia. Myeloproliferative diseases are a group of disorders characterized by an overproduction of blood cells by the bone marrow and include chronic myeloid leukemia. Lymphoma and leukemia are cancers of the blood. http://www.physorg.com/news168524120.html Medicine & Health Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:00:01 EST news168524120 Thousands of scientists and hundreds of software programmers studying the process by which RNA inside cells normally degrades may soon broaden their focus significantly. http://www.physorg.com/news168179768.html Biology Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:41:02 EST news168179768 Cancer researchers are turning to mathematical models to help answer important clinical questions, and a new paper in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, illustrates how the technique may answer questions about Herceptin resistance. http://www.physorg.com/news168011137.html Medicine & Health Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:53:18 EST news168011137 (PhysOrg.com) -- In new research on prostate cancer to bone metastasis, Dr. Phillip Trackman of Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine explains that the lysyl oxidase pro-peptide (LOX-PP) inhibits prostate cancer cell growth in vitro by inhibiting the activity of a key growth factor known as Fibroblast Growth Factor 2, or FGF-2. http://www.physorg.com/news166289142.html Medicine & Health Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:00:01 EST news166289142 Scientists at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have discovered that specialized complex sugar molecules (glycans) that anchor cells into place act as tumor suppressors in breast and prostate cancers. These glycans play a critical role in cell adhesion in normal cells, and their decrease or loss leads to increased cell migration by invasive cancer cells and metastasis. An increase in expression of the enzyme that produces these glycans, β3GnT1, resulted in a significant reduction in tumor activity. http://www.physorg.com/news166120789.html Medicine & Health Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:30:01 EST news166120789 A tightly controlled system of checks and balances ensures that a powerful tumor suppressor called p53 keeps a tight lid on unchecked cell growth but doesn't wreak havoc in healthy cells. In their latest study, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies suggest just how finely tuned the system is and how little it takes to tip the balance. http://www.physorg.com/news166103879.html Medicine & Health Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:59:32 EST news166103879 Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have isolated a potent inhibitor of tumor metastasis made by tumor cells, one that could potentially be harnessed as a cancer treatment. Their findings were published in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week of June 22. http://www.physorg.com/news164910014.html Medicine & Health Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:20:01 EST news164910014 In the fruit fly's developing brain, stem cells called neuroblasts normally divide to create one self-renewing neuroblast and one cell that has a different fate. But neuroblast growth can sometimes spin out of control and become a brain tumor. http://www.physorg.com/news164892108.html Medicine & Health Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:22:47 EST news164892108 Researchers have identified a new candidate tumor suppressor gene in colorectal cancer and examined its use as a potential biomarker in stool samples, according to a new study published online June 17 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. http://www.physorg.com/news164509644.html Medicine & Health Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:10:01 EST news164509644 Scientists in Michigan and California are reporting an advance toward development of a new generation of drugs that treat disease by orchestrating how genes in the body produce proteins involved in arthritis, cancer and a range of other disorders. Acting like an `on-off switch,` the medications might ratchet up the production of proteins in genes working at abnormally low levels or shut off genes producing an abnormal protein linked to disease. http://www.physorg.com/news163362257.html Chemistry Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:24:52 EST news163362257 Tumors need a healthy supply of blood to grow and spread. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a molecule that regulates blood vessel growth that is often found at less-than-normal levels in human tumors. Blocking the expression of the molecule, called PHD2, allows human cancer cells to grow more quickly when implanted into mice and increases the number of blood vessels feeding the tumor. http://www.physorg.com/news163084699.html Medicine & Health Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:19:16 EST news163084699 Researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah studied the events leading to colon cancer and found that an unexpected protein serves as the "spark" that triggers formation of colon polyps, the precursors to cancerous tumors. http://www.physorg.com/news161528318.html Medicine & Health Thu, 14 May 2009 13:59:01 EST news161528318 Our genome is a patchwork of neighborhoods that couldn't be more different: Some areas are hustling and bustling with gene activity, while others are sparsely populated and in perpetual lock-down. Breaking down just a few of the molecular fences that separate them blurs the lines and leads to the inactivation of at least two tumor suppressor genes, according to researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. http://www.physorg.com/news161527703.html Medicine & Health Thu, 14 May 2009 13:50:04 EST news161527703 The discovery of tumor-suppressor genes has been key to unlocking the molecular and cellular mechanisms leading to uncontrolled cell proliferation - the hallmark of cancer. Often, these genes will work in concert with others in a complex biochemical system that keeps our cells growing and dividing, disease free. http://www.physorg.com/news161278339.html Medicine & Health Mon, 11 May 2009 16:32:40 EST news161278339