Melanoma is a form of cancer that begins in melanocytes (cells that make the pigment melanin). It may begin in a mole (skin melanoma), but can also begin in other pigmented tissues, such as in the eye or in the intestines.
A test that monitors blood levels of DNA fragments released by dying tumor cells may serve as an accurate early indicator of treatment success in people in late stages of one of the most aggressive forms of skin cancer, a new study finds.
In far too many cases over the years, scientists have discovered promising new cancer treatments, only to report later that the tumor cells found ways to become resistant. These disappointing results have made overcoming drug resistance a major goal in cancer research.
If finding a needle in a haystack is hard enough, then one should try finding a particular molecule on the needle.
For patients with cancers that do not respond to immunotherapy drugs, adjusting the composition of microorganisms in the intestines--known as the gut microbiome--through the use of a stool, or fecal, transplants may help some of these individuals respond to the immunotherapy drugs, a new study suggests.
There are many mechanisms by which the body responds to foreign invaders. One of these involves the T-cells of the immune system, which have a number of different proteins on their surface called "checkpoint proteins."
It was an unexpected discovery that started with an analysis of more than 1,000 genes. The question: why game-changing cancer immunotherapy treatments work for only a fraction of patients.
Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, the UCL Cancer Institute, and the Cancer Research UK Lung Cancer Centre of Excellence have identified genetic changes in tumours which could be used to predict if immunotherapy drugs would be effective in individual patients.
Breast cancer could be identified more precisely than existing methods using blood specimens and exclusive proteomics-based technology.
The team led by Bruno Silva Santos, Principal Investigator and Deputy Director of the Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM) and Professor at the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Lisboa, discovered that the functions of a subtype of white blood cells - gamma delta T cells - are regulated by metabolic resources, namely sugars and fat.
Scientists from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have identified a protein known as NF-kappa B-inducing kinase (NIK).
Cancers like melanoma are hard to treat, not least because they have a varied bag of tricks for defeating or evading treatments.
Scientists have long known that therapies that target the cancer-driving MAPK pathway are only effective in a handful of cancers with specific mutations in a cancer gene called BRAF, and these cancers that initially respond to the therapy often end up developing resistance to the treatment, resulting in relapse for many patients.
Although immunotherapy has been effective in treating different kinds of cancer, it is still unsuccessful when it comes to treating breast cancers.
Obesity has been linked to increased risk for over a dozen different types of cancer, as well as worse prognosis and survival.
As time goes by, the tips of your chromosomes--called telomeres--become shorter. This process has long been viewed as an unwanted side-effect of aging, but a recent study shows it is in fact good for you.
Immune-system T cells have been reprogrammed into regenerative stem cell-like memory (TSCM) cells that are long-lived, highly active "super immune cells" with strong antitumor activity, according to new research from Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Utah scientists have discovered new functions of a key cellular machine that regulates gene packaging and is mutated in 20% of human cancers. The study was published in print today in the journal Molecular Cell.
Last year, researchers at the University of California, Riverside, identified the early origins of neural crest cells -- embryonic cells in vertebrates that travel throughout the body and generate many cell types -- in chick embryos.
Ludwig Cancer Research scientists have developed a method to significantly improve the preclinical evaluation of chimeric antigen-receptor (CAR) T cell therapies.
Adoptive transfer of T-cells can extend survival and, at times, treat patients with advanced solid tumors.