12/8/2005 Durham, North Carolina press release Duke University News (www.dukenews.edu) Duke University biochemists aided by Duke computer scientists and computational chemists have identified the likely way two key enzymes dock in an intricate three-dimensional puzzle-fit to regulate cell division. Solving the docking puzzle could lead to anticancer drugs to block the runaway cell division behind some cancers, said the researchers. Significantly, their insights arose not just from meticulous biochemical studies, but also from using sophisticated simulation techniques to perform "chemistry in the computer." In a paper published Nov. 24, 2005 online in the journal Biochemistry, members of the interdisciplinary collaboration described how they discovered the probable orientation required for a Cdc25B phosphatase enzyme to "dock" with and activate a cyclin-dependent kinase protein complex that also functions as an enzyme, known as Cdk2-pTpY--CycA. The work was funded by the National Institutes of Health. Detailed study of such docking is important because uncontrolled overreaction of the Cdc25 family of enzymes has been associated with the development of various cancers. Anti-cancer drugs that jam the enzyme, preventing its docking with the kinase, could halt cell over proliferation to treat such cancers. However, developing such drugs has been hampered by lack of detailed understanding of how the Cdc25s fit with their associated kinases. "To me this is the culmination of my six years here at Duke," said Johannes Rudolph, the Duke assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry who led the research. "It's very exciting. I think it's a really hard problem." A successful docking [...]

12/8/2005 Florida staff Biocompare (www.biocompare.com) University of Florida researchers say they are a step closer to a technique to easily detect a wide variety of cancers before symptoms become apparent. The findings, currently online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involve introducing molecularly engineered strands of DNA into cell cultures and observing whether they unleash a fluorescent burst after they adhere to cancer proteins. The technique could enable doctors to search within extremely complex fluid or tissue samples to pinpoint biomarkers - proteins that signal that something is amiss. "Even when the cancer biomarkers are in extremely low concentration we have been able to detect them," said Weihong Tan, Ph.D., a UF Research Foundation professor of chemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a member of the UF Genetics Institute, the UF Shands Cancer Center and the McKnight Brain Institute. "This approach could help for early diagnosis of cancer, as well as for detecting residual cancer in patients after treatment." It works by capitalizing on fluorescent molecules engineered into tiny strands of DNA or RNA. Known as aptamers, the strands act as molecular beacons, corresponding and readily binding to a sought-after substance such as cancer protein. In this case, the target was platelet derived growth factor, or PDGF, a protein that regulates cell growth and division. Elevated PDGF levels have been linked to different forms of cancer, and have been found in patients with malignancies of the ovaries, kidneys, lung, pancreas and brain. After [...]

12/15/2005 Carolina staff News14Carolina (rdu.news14.com) Each year, there are nearly 30,000 cases of head and neck cancer. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation all have their benefits but can leave patients with a difficult time swallowing. Now, doctors are working to improve that. Allen Clark, M.D., is a plastic surgeon. But two years ago, he became a patient. "I actually had a lymph node come up in my neck," he says. "Being a physician -- a surgeon -- knowing what that means, I was pretty sure I had cancer." It was throat cancer. Doctors recommended chemotherapy and radiation. But radiation caused Clark's throat to tighten, and swallowing became excruciatingly painful. "It's almost like you're drinking hot coffee that's too hot, and you burn your throat, but you do that every day for six or seven weeks," Bill Carroll, M.D., an otolaryngologist at University of Alabama at Birmingham, tells Ivanhoe. Dr. Carroll and colleagues noticed patients who continued to swallow during treatment, instead of relying on a feeding tube, did better. Now, patients are taught a series of swallowing exercises they do before and during treatment. "One of the exercises that we did was we'd hold my tongue between my teeth and swallow," Clark says. Another is making a high-pitch "E" sound to elevate the larynx. All the exercises work to strengthen the tongue and throat muscles. Patients say the exercises are simple but can be painful. "But most of them do try," Dr. Carroll says. "And for the ones that are able [...]

12/3/2005 Fairfax, VA staff Doctor's Guide (www.docguide.com) Patients suffering from advanced head and neck cancer affecting their larynx can maintain vocal function by undergoing a combination of radiation therapy and chemotherapy instead of surgery to remove the larynx, according to a study published in the December 1, 2005, issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics. Doctors in the Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., studied 97 patients with advanced laryngeal cancer. All of the patients were given an initial course of chemotherapy and depending on their response to that treatment, they either underwent a laryngectomy to remove the larynx or received radiation therapy coupled with chemotherapy. The results showed that patients who were able to keep their larynx intact and underwent radiation therapy maintained a higher voice-related quality of life than those who had their larynx removed. While swallowing function was comparable between the two groups, understandability of speech was much better in patients who kept their larynx. In addition, 89% of patients with their larynx intact were able to obtain nutrition orally and without supplements, compared to 64% who underwent the laryngectomy. The overall three-year survival rate for all patients was 86%. "Undergoing the radiation, chemotherapy combination can increase toxicity levels in some patients, but maintaining the overall quality of life for those patients justifies the potential for added toxicity," said Kevin Fung, MD, FRCS(C), lead author of the study and currently a Head and Neck Surgeon [...]