BRCA1 tagged posts

A Phase III clinical trial led by Neeraj Agarwal, MD, FASCO, senior director of clinical research at Huntsman Cancer Institute and professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah (the U), has found that a combination prostate cancer treatment could prevent the disease from progressing into a harder-to-treat form of cancer in select patients.

Combination therapy targets gene-altered tumors
The study, TALAPRO-3 (NCT04821622), evaluated a combination of two drugs—talazoparib and enzalutamide—in patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer. This is a form of the disease that has spread beyond the prostate but remains susceptible to standard hormone therapy treatment.

The patients involved also had prostate cancer affected ...

This image shows reduced levels of BRCA1 (red) in neurons (blue). Amyloid-beta plaques in the brain can deplete neurons of BRCA1, potentially contributing to cognitive deficits in Alzheimer’s disease. Credit: Elsa Suberbielle

Researchers from the Gladstone Institutes have shown for the first time that the protein BRCA1 is required for normal learning and memory and is depleted by Alzheimer’s disease. BRCA1 is a key protein involved in DNA repair, and mutations that impair its function increase the risk for breast and ovarian cancer. The new study shows Alzheimer’s disease is associated with a depletion of BRCA1 in neurons and that BRCA1 depletion can cause cognitive deficits.

“BRCA1 has so far been studied primarily in dividing (multiplying) cells and in cancer, which is characterized by a...