tumor tagged posts

Limits of large language models in precision medicine. Treating cancer is becoming increasingly complex, but also offers more and more possibilities. After all, the better a tumor’s biology and genetic features are understood, the more treatment approaches there are. To be able to offer patients personalized therapies tailored to their disease, laborious and time-consuming analysis and interpretation of various data is required. Researchers at Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin have now studied whether generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT can help with this step...

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have successfully leveraged an FDA-approved drug to halt growth of tumors driven by mutations in the RAS gene, which are famously difficult to treat and account for about 1 in 4 cancer deaths.

Taking advantage of what they discovered to be the cancer cells’ appetite for a reactive form of iron, the researchers tweaked an anticancer drug to operate only in these iron-rich cells, leaving other cells to function normally...

An illustration of aquaporin’s effect on cells. Credit: M. Shapiro Laboratory/Caltech

Knowing which genes are switched on is important for the treatment and monitoring of disease. Now, for the first time, Caltech scientists have invented a new method to link MRI signals to gene expression in cells – including tumor cells – in living tissues. The technique, which eventually could be used in humans, would allow gene expression to be monitored non-invasively, requiring no surgical procedures eg biopsies.

In MRI, hydrogen atoms in the body – atoms that are mostly contained in water molecules and fat – are excited using a magnetic field...

Previous research looked at high doses of purified resveratrol to study its potential to prevent cancer. This is the first study to look at the effects of a lower daily dose – equivalent to the amount of resveratrol found in one large (approx. 250ml) glass of red wine vs dose 200X higher. Results from bowel cancer-prone mice given the smaller dose showed a 50% reduction in tumour size while the high dose showed a 25% reduction. Lower doses of resveratrol were twice as effective as the higher dose in stopping tumours growing, although this effect was only seen in animals fed a high-fat diet.

Samples of tumours from bowel cancer patients given different doses of resveratrol showed that even lower doses can get into cancer cells and potentially affect processes involved in tumour growth...