metabolism – Oral Cancer News

UK bioengineer designs tools to improve treatment for head and neck cancer

Source: uknow.uky.edu Author: Lindsay Travis One University of Kentucky researcher is working to develop new techniques for radiation treatment to improve survival rates of patients with a specific type of cancer. Caigang Zhu, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the UK Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering. He is also a member of the Molecular and Cellular Oncology Research Program at the UK Markey Cancer Center. The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded Zhu a prestigious R01 grant of $2 million over five years to develop optical metabolic spectroscopy and imaging tools. Zhu is targeting head and neck squamous cell cancer. Squamous cells line the body's skin, mucous membranes and other tissues, including the mouth, throat and voice box. These types of cancers make up 4% of cases in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute. “Cellular metabolism is highly dynamic and strongly influenced by its local vascular microenvironment, gaining a systems-level view of tumor metabolism and vasculature in vivo is essential in understanding many critical cancer biology questions,” said Zhu Currently, there are few techniques to help oncologists answer those questions. Zhu’s Spectroscopic Imaging Laboratory, in the Pigman College of Engineering and supported by Markey, hopes to make a difference. Researchers in the lab will develop a new device to quickly measure tumor properties using a special fiber and smart techniques to map the blood vessels connected to them. “The team will [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2023-11-15T15:02:23-07:00November, 2023|Oral Cancer News|

Novel PET radiotracer successfully detects multiple cancers, offers potential for new targeted radionuclide therapy

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: news release, Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging A new radiotracer, 68Ga-FAP-2286, has been found to be more effective than the most commonly used nuclear medicine cancer imaging radiotracer, 18F-FDG. In a study published in the March issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 68Ga-FAP-2286 detected 100 percent of primary tumors across multiple cancer types as compared to 18F-FDG, which identified only 80 percent. 68Ga-FAP-2286 was also more effective in detecting lymph node metastases and distant metastases. Currently, 18F-FDG, which measures glucose metabolism, is used extensively in nuclear medicine cancer imaging. Recent advances have shown that fibroblast activation protein (FAP), which is overexpressed in cancer cells, may be a better target for the imaging of solid tumors. “In this study we aimed to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of 68Ga-FAP-2286—a radionuclide developed to target FAP—for detecting the primary and metastatic lesions in patients with various types of cancer,” said Haojun Chen, MD, PhD, nuclear medicine physician at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University in Xiamen, China. Sixty-four patients with 14 types of cancer were included in the study. Sixty-three of the patients underwent paired 68Ga-FAP-2286 and 18F-FDG PET/CT, and 19 patients underwent paired 68Ga-FAP-2286 and 68Ga-FAP-46 (another 68Ga-radiolabeled variant). Results were evaluated and compared. 68Ga-FAP-2286 PET yielded a higher radiotracer uptake, tumor-to-background ratio and tumor detectability than 18F-FDG. In addition, 68Ga-FAP-2286 and 68Ga-FAPI-46 yielded comparable clinical results. “The novel radionuclide 68Ga-FAP-2286 is shown to be a promising FAP-inhibitor derivative for safe cancer diagnosis, staging and restaging,” [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2023-03-18T07:28:37-07:00March, 2023|Oral Cancer News|

Say No to Glow: Reducing the Carcinogenic Effects of ALDH2 Deficiency

Source: blogs.plos.org Author: Catherine Chang et al. Turning red after consuming alcohol may seem like a mere social inconvenience. Yet, behind this red complexion lies a far more serious problem. ALDH2 deficiency, more commonly known as Alcohol Flushing Syndrome or Asian Glow, is a genetic condition that interferes with the metabolism of alcohol. As a result, people with ALDH2 deficiency have increased risks of developing esophageal and head and neck cancers . Globally, this deficiency affects 540 million people — 8% of the world population. In East Asia (which includes Japan, China, and Korea), this is a much bigger problem, where 36% of the population is affected [1]. In our home, Taiwan, approximately 47% of the population carries this genetic mutation — the highest percentage in the world [2]! Normally, ethanol is first converted to acetaldehyde (a toxic intermediate) by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). A second enzyme, aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2), then converts toxic acetaldehyde into acetate, a compound which can be safely metabolized in the body. For people who carry wild type ALDH2*1, acetaldehyde can be broken down quickly. People with ALDH2 deficiency, however, have a point mutation which leads to the less efficient mutant ALDH2*2 [3], [4]. Enzymatic activity in ALDH2-deficient individuals can be as low as 4% compared to wild type [4], [5], [6], [7]. As a result, acetaldehyde accumulates and induces an inflammatory response that causes the skin to flush after drinking alcohol [8]. Turning red is the most obvious result of ALDH2 deficiency, but [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2019-09-10T04:23:56-07:00September, 2019|Oral Cancer News|

Breath test for detecting head and neck cancer

Source: http://medicalxpress.com/ Author: provided by Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne A portable device can detect the presence of certain types of cancer in people's breath. Tested on patients, the new device was developed in part by EPFL researchers as part of an international collaboration. Inhale, then exhale. This simple act could now save lives. A technology developed in part at EPFL can quickly identify the presence of a head and neck cancer, such as of the throat or mouth by analysing people's breath. The new device, equipped with extremely sensitive sensors, has been tested on patients and operates with a computer or even a mobile phone. It's an innovative tool for the early diagnosis of tumours. Very few routine exams exist to detect cancer. Yet this disease is the third leading cause of death worldwide. Most tumours are found relatively late, which makes recovery less likely. Cancer "signals" its presence in human breath At SAMLAB in Neuchâtel, under the direction of Nico de Rooij, a team of researchers including Frédéric Loizeau, a doctoral student at the time, developed very precise micro-sensors able to distinguish the breath of a healthy patient from that of a sick one. The scientists' starting point was the observation that human breath contains not only air, but also hundreds of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) whose presence and concentration vary depending on the patients' state of health. The metabolism of cancerous cells is different from that of healthy cells, and the two types of cells produce different [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-04-12T07:41:10-07:00April, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Taking out a cancer’s co-dependency: novel compound selectively kills cancer cells by blocking response to oxidative stress

Source: www.eurekalert.org Author: public release A cancer cell may seem out of control, growing wildly and breaking all the rules of orderly cell life and death. But amid the seeming chaos there is a balance between a cancer cell's revved-up metabolism and skyrocketing levels of cellular stress. Just as a cancer cell depends on a hyperactive metabolism to fuel its rapid growth, it also depends on anti-oxidative enzymes to quench potentially toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by such high metabolic demand. Scientists at the Broad Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have discovered a novel compound that blocks this response to oxidative stress selectively in cancer cells but spares normal cells, with an effectiveness that surpassed a chemotherapy drug currently used to treat breast cancer. Their findings, based on experiments in cell culture and in mice, appear online in Nature on July 13. The plant-based compound piperlongumine (PL), derived from the fruit of a pepper plant found in southern India and southeast Asia, appears to kill cancer cells by jamming the machinery that dissipates high oxidative stress and the resulting ROS. Normal cells have low levels of ROS, in tune with their more modest metabolism, so they don't need high levels of the anti-oxidant enzymes that PL stymies once they pass a certain threshold. "Piperlongumine targets something that's not thought to be essential in normal cells," said Stuart L. Schreiber, a senior co-author and director of the Broad's Chemical Biology Program. "Cancer cells have a greater dependence on ROS [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-07-20T05:21:06-07:00July, 2011|Oral Cancer News|