cancer cells tagged posts

Brentuximab vedotin mechanism of action.

A new combination of three drugs that harness the body’s immune system is safe and effective, destroying most cancer cells in 95% of patients with recurrent Hodgkin lymphoma, according to the results of an early-phase study.

Presented Dec. 3 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology in San Diego, the study in 19 men and women found that injections of ipilimumab (marketed as Yervoy), nivolumab (Opdivo), and brentuximab vedotin (ADCETRIS) safely decreased tumor size or spread to some degree in 18 patients after at least six months of treatment, with 16 patients showing complete disappearance (remission) of tumors. After nine months of treatment, 15 remained in complete remission with no sign of their cancer’s return (relapse).

Resear...

Dr. Joshua Mendell CREDIT: UT Southwestern Medical Center

A gene called NORAD has been found to help maintain the proper number of chromosomes in cells, and that when inactivated, causes the number of chromosomes in a cell to become unstable, a key feature of cancer cells.

Previously, genes that encode the recipe for making proteins have been implicated in maintaining the proper number of chromosomes in a cell. The NORAD gene, however, does not encode a protein. Instead, NORAD produces a long noncoding RNA, a type of molecule that was not previously known to be important in chromosome maintenance.

Researchers began studying this particular molecule because the RNA kicks into action after DNA is damaged; they therefore termed it Noncoding RNA Activated by DNA Damage, or NORAD.
The scientist...