Select research highlights from current AAC...( From the September 1 issue of Cancer Re...)

Select research highlights from current AACR journals

From the September 1 issue of Cancer Research:

Aberrations in the receptor protein dystroglycan may lead to either muscular dystrophy or the development of carcinomas. Whereas several molecular defects in muscle disease have been characterized, little is known about such changes in carcinoma cells. Singh et al. identified multiple post-translational modifications that modulate dystroglycan function in these aberrant cells. Novel defects in carcinoma cells arising in this important cell adhesion molecule are similar to defects recently identified in muscular dystrophies. The research was conducted at the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratories, Berkley, Calif,; the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; and California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, San Francisco, Calif.

Among research findings featured in the September 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research are:

Heat therapy increases the efficacy of tumor treatment with melphalan, an alkylating agent used in cancer therapy for ovarian cancer and certain bone marrow tumors. In rat models for fibrosarcomas, Abdel-Wahab et al. documented that heat treatment with warm water heightened the response of tumors to high doses of melphalan. The effect was synergistic, but not related to heat-promoted increased uptake of the drug. The studies were conducted at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.

Two inhibitors of steroid synthesis used to treat hormone-dependent breast cancer in postmenopausal women pack a significant beneficial side effect in laboratory animals. Exemestane and letrozole was shown to significantly prevent bone loss, enhance bone mechanical strength and lower serum cholesterol levels. The inhibitor drugs act by interfering with estrogen synthesis and depleting estrogen concentrations in the blood, according to the study by Goss et al., conducted at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario.

Included among the articles pub
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Contact: Russell Vanderboom, PhD
vanderboom@aacr.org
215-440-9300
American Association for Cancer Research
1-Sep-2004

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