In this breast cancer update, researchers have found a major breast cancer causing gene called the ZNF703. ZNF703 is one of the first genes discovered to play a key role in aggressive breast cancers. This “oncogene” is the first to be found in the last five years.
Breast cancer gene research
It causes an aggressive form of
breast cancer and is an overactive gene in one of 12 breast cancers.
Scientists believe that this ZNF703 gene should be identified as a target for new drug treatment therapies.
Her2 is another oncogene which was discovered by scientists during breast cancer research earlier on. After the identification of Her2, the breast cancer drug Herceptic was created to eliminate Her2 gene breast cancers.
An oncogene in healthy cells causes cell division. However, if it becomes unbalanced and overactive, it will create havoc with the cell division process.
Scientists studied gene activity both breast cancer cells grown in a lab and 1,172 breast tumor samples. By a process of elimination of genes in the tumor samples, only the ZNF703 gene was left within the breast cancer cells which remained overactive. In breast cancer patients, ZNF703 was the only overactive gene that was driving the breast cancer.
Researchers at the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Vancouver, Canada and the Cambridge Research Institute in Britain did the research. This research was published in the EMBO website at embomolmed.org.
It is hoped that this discovery of the oncogene ZNF703 will lead to better breast cancer treatments in the future to treat cancers that are resistant to standard hormone therapies.
Dr Rachel Greig, of Breakthrough Breast Cancer said the research was “a vital step in understanding the genes that drive the growth of some types of breast cancer”.
Health news from the media tonight reported that there is a blood test for cancer. Could this be the next medical game changer? The blood test for cancer technology was discovered by Boston scientists and is owned by Johnson & Johnson. Johnson & Johnson is promising to help bring this new blood test to the market.
Blood Test for Cancer: Photo MSNBC
How long will it take? It is expected it will take Johnson & Johnson about two years to bring this blood test for cancer to the market. This simple blood test could then be available in your doctor’s office. This year, four cancer centers will begin studies on the cancer blood test.
This new blood test is so sensitive that it can identify a single cancer cell among masses of healthy blood cells. This single cell could become indicative of major cancers such as colon cancer, breast cancer, lung and prostate cancers developing in the future. This test would be like a liquid biopsy, removing the need for painful tissue sampling. It could even replace painful mammograms and colonoscopies.
The blood test for cancer shows lots of potential and could prove more reliable than diagnosing tumors through needle biopsies which don’t always provide enough of a sample for doctors to evaluate and then prescribe a possible method of treatment.
The following excerpt of this exciting health news from MSNBC.com explains further.
The only test on the market now to find tumor cells in blood — CellSearch, made by J&J’s Veridex unit — just gives a cell count. It doesn’t capture whole cells that doctors can analyze to choose treatments.
Interest in trying to collect these cells soared in 2007, after Haber and his colleagues published a study of Mass General’s test. It is far more powerful than CellSearch and traps cells intact. It requires only a couple of teaspoons of blood and can be done repeatedly to monitor treatment or determine why a drug has stopped working and what to try next.
“That’s what got the scientific community’s interest,” Kris said. Doctors can give a drug one day and sample blood the next day to see if the circulating tumor cells are gone, he explained.
The test uses a microchip that resembles a lab slide covered in 78,000 tiny posts, like bristles on a hairbrush. The posts are coated with antibodies that bind to tumor cells. When blood is forced across the chip, cells ping off the posts like balls in a pinball machine. The cancer cells stick, and stains make them glow so researchers can count and capture them for study.
The test can find one cancer cell in a billion or more healthy cells, said Mehmet Toner, a Harvard University bioengineer who helped design it. Researchers know this because they spiked blood samples with cancer cells and then searched for them with the chip.
Studies of the chip have been published in the journals Nature, the New England Journal of Medicine and Science Translational Medicine. It is the most promising of several dozen that companies and universities are rushing to develop to capture circulating tumor cells, said Bob McCormack, technology chief for Veridex.
The agreement announced Monday will have Veridex and J&J’s Ortho Biotech Oncology unit work to improve the microchip, including trying a cheaper plastic to make it practical for mass production. No price goal has been set, a company official said, but the current CellSearch test costs several hundred dollars.
For years now, aspirin has been called the “wonder drug.” What this has meant is that by taking a daily low dosage of aspirin, it has been found that aspirin benefits us as an anti-inflammatory and helps prevent heart disease.
Now it seems after research which took place over four years, Peter Rothwell of the University of Oxford writes in an article published in the Lancet, the medical journal, it has been found that aspirin may slightly reduce the cancer risk by about 20 per cent for colon cancer as well as other cancers such as esophagus cancer, lung cancer, and gastrointestinal cancers.
There may be a drawback for some people though. The daily usage of aspirin can cause stomach bleeding and bleeding in the intestines of some people.
The benefits for women taking a low dose aspirin have not been determined for sure as only a few women were used in the study. It is not known if the risk of breast cancer is reduced. The study was only performed with men who took 75 mg of aspirin a day. Have a conversation with your doctor if you think that you should be taking a low dose of aspirin on a daily basis. The study is not conclusive and this is perhaps the reason why you should speak to your doctor first before beginning to take a baby aspirin everyday for its health benefits.
