Tumor suppressors: More than meets the eye
Nature Reviews Cancer - April 2002 - Although most people don't think much of mucus, its important functions, such as lubricating the epithelia and protecting against infection, are undisputed. Recent findings, reported in the 1 March issue of Science, reveal a new function for this underappreciated substance — preventing the development of colorectal cancer.
Read it here

Researchers test custom-made vaccine for non-hodgkin's lymphoma; approach uses patient's own tumor cells to harness immune system
ScienceDaily Magazine - April 29, 2002 - As part of a national multi-center study, researchers at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center in Baltimore are testing a custom-made vaccine for low-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that uses each patient's own tumor cells to combat the cancer. "This type of low-grade follicular lymphoma has traditionally been highly treatable, but essentially incurable," says Aaron P. Rapoport, M.D., the director of lymphoma-gene medicine at the Greenebaum Cancer Center and the chief investigator for the study. So far, four people have been enrolled in the study at the Greenebaum Cancer Center, but researchers hope to recruit a total of 12 to 15 patients in the Phase III clinical trial.
Read it here

Magnetic resonance imaging stages rectal cancer before surgery with high sensitivity
DGReview, 04/25/2002 -- Magnetic resonance imaging with phase-arrayed coils can accurately and sensitively stage rectal cancer, say researchers at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Although not as accurate as endoscopic ultrasound and more costly, magnetic resonance imaging has -- excellent sensitivity -- in detecting transmural penetration of rectal cancer, they say.
Read it here

Anticancer drug reveals alternate means of inducing cell suicide
(Journal of the National Cancer Institute) April 17, 2002 -- Derivatives of the COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib can trigger cancer cell suicide, or apoptosis, but not necessarily through the recognized means of blocking COX-2 enzyme activity, a new study concludes. By separating COX-2 activity from apoptosis, researchers have a starting point for designing new classes of anticancer drugs, write Xueqin Song, Ching-Shih Chen, Ph.D., Ohio State University, and their coworkers in the April 17 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Read it here

Gene alteration spurs growth of colon cancer
Howard Hughes Medical Institute - April 2, 2002 - Researchers have discovered a novel gene alteration that causes an abnormal cellular -- off-switch -- that contributes to the growth of colon cancer. Identification of the gene alteration, which appears to contribute to tumor malignancy in about 40 percent of patients with colon cancer, may permit researchers to better understand how tumors become malignant and invasive. Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Sanford D. Markowitz and colleagues at Case Western Reserve University and four other institutions have shown that inactivation of the helicase-like transcription factor (HLTF) gene contributes to transforming normal colon cells into cancer cells.
Read it here