New weapon against cancer: Microwaves can be used to create medical images

ScienceDaily (Oct. 25, 2011) — A research team from Chalmers University of Technology has developed new techniques of cancer diagnosis and treatment with the aid of microwaves, which could play a pioneering role in the battle against cancer. These techniques could save many lives and are more effective, less invasive and simpler than currently available alternatives. Clinical studies are now being planned.

The Chalmers team expects to be able to test two different techniques on patients within the next six months. One method is an alternative to mammography, i.e. using X-rays to detect breast cancer. The other aims to treat tumours in the head and neck by heating the cancer cells.

Microwaves can be used to create medical images -- a new technique known as microwave tomography. Andreas Fhager, Associate Professor of Biomedical Electromagnetics, has developed a system to detect breast cancer with the new technique. He points out that the method has several advantages over mammography.

"We obtain three-dimensional images showing significantly better contrast between healthy and malignant tissue compared to X-rays. That makes it easier to detect even really small tumours that may currently be obscured by healthy tissue, thus creating the preconditions for much more reliable diagnosis."

"Unlike X-rays, the technique also emits negligible doses of non-ionising radiation -- less than a hundredth of the radiation to which you are exposed when talking on a mobile phone."

The idea is to use the technique in conjunction with a treatment couch, equipped with holes for the breasts, to which the thirty or so antennas required by the examination are connected. It should be considerably more comfortable for patients than mammography. The method is also much less expensive, not only because microwave equipment is not so costly, but also because the clearer images make interpretation easier for the doctors.

In the second Chalmers project, the microwaves are actually used to destroy the tumours by heating them, a process known as hyperthermia. Clinical studies have shown that treatment with conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy in combination with hyperthermia may double the long-term ability to cure certain forms of cancer, such as cervical cancer and soft-tissue sarcoma.

"We are now developing a new hyperthermia system that can reach deep-seated tumours in the head and neck with high accuracy," says Hana Dobšícek Trefná, a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. "In this way, higher temperatures can be reached in the tumour without affecting the surrounding tissue."

With time, the Chalmers team hope to be able to combine both methods. As soon as a tumour is detected, the already connected antennas could be used to start treating the tumour directly while at the same time monitoring that the right tissue is heated up. The method should also be applicable for other parts of the body than breasts, head and neck.

Theranostics -- the treatment and diagnosis of diseases in a single system -- is a growing area of research, and the Chalmers team believe that microwaves have great potential in the field. The underlying microwave technology is already being used in the "Strokefinder," a helmet that can distinguish between blood clots and bleeding in the brain. The Strokefinder is currently undergoing clinical trials at Sahlgrenska Hospital.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Chalmers University of Technology.

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Cell phones and cancer: Assessment classifies radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans

ScienceDaily (May 31, 2011) — The WHO/International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B), based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer1, associated with wireless phone use.

Background

Over the last few years, there has been mounting concern about the possibility of adverse health effects resulting from exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, such as those emitted by wireless communication devices. The number of mobile phone subscriptions is estimated at 5 billion globally.

From May 24-31 2011, a Working Group of 31 scientists from 14 countries has been meeting at IARC in Lyon, France, to assess the potential carcinogenic hazards from exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields. These assessments will be published as Volume 102 of the IARC Monographs, which will be the fifth volume in this series to focus on physical agents, after Volume 55 (Solar Radiation), Volume 75 and Volume 78 on ionizing radiation (X-rays, gamma-rays, neutrons, radio-nuclides), and Volume 80 on non-ionizing radiation (extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields).

The IARC Monograph Working Group discussed the possibility that these exposures might induce long-term health effects, in particular an increased risk for cancer. This has relevance for public health, particularly for users of mobile phones, as the number of users is large and growing, particularly among young adults and children.

The IARC Monograph Working Group discussed and evaluated the available literature on the following exposure categories involving radiofrequency electromagnetic fields:

occupational exposures to radar and to microwaves;environmental exposures associated with transmission of signals for radio, television and wireless telecommunication; andpersonal exposures associated with the use of wireless telephones.

Results

The evidence was reviewed critically, and overall evaluated as being limited2 among users of wireless telephones for glioma and acoustic neuroma, and inadequate3 to draw conclusions for other types of cancers. The evidence from the occupational and environmental exposures mentioned above was similarly judged inadequate. The Working Group did not quantitate the risk; however, one study of past cell phone use (up to the year 2004), showed a 40% increased risk for gliomas in the highest category of heavy users (reported average: 30 minutes per day over a 10-year period).

Conclusions

Dr Jonathan Samet (University of Southern California, USA), overall Chairman of the Working Group, indicated that "the evidence, while still accumulating, is strong enough to support a conclusion and the 2B classification. The conclusion means that there could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cell phones and cancer risk."

"Given the potential consequences for public health of this classification and findings," said IARC Director Christopher Wild, "it is important that additional research be conducted into the long- term, heavy use of mobile phones. Pending the availability of such information, it is important to take pragmatic measures to reduce exposure such as hands-free devices or texting. "

The Working Group considered hundreds of scientific articles; the complete list will be published in the Monograph. It is noteworthy to mention that several recent in-press scientific articles4 resulting from the Interphone study were made available to the working group shortly before it was due to convene, reflecting their acceptance for publication at that time, and were included in the evaluation.

A concise report summarizing the main conclusions of the IARC Working Group and the evaluations of the carcinogenic hazard from radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (including the use of mobile telephones) will be published in The Lancet Oncology in its July 1 issue, and in a few days online.

Notes:

1. International experts shared the complex task of tackling the exposure data, the studies of cancer in humans, the studies of cancer in experimental animals, and the mechanistic and other relevant data. 1 237 913 new cases of brain cancers (all types combined) occurred around the world in 2008 (gliomas represent 2/3 of these). Source: Globocan 2008

2. 'Limited evidence of carcinogenicity': A positive association has been observed between exposure to the agent and cancer for which a causal interpretation is considered by the Working Group to be credible, but chance, bias or confounding could not be ruled out with reasonable confidence.

3. 'Inadequate evidence of carcinogenicity': The available studies are of insufficient quality, consistency or statistical power to permit a conclusion regarding the presence or absence of a causal association between exposure and cancer, or no data on cancer in humans are available.

4 a. 'Acoustic neuroma risk in relation to mobile telephone use: results of the INTERPHONE international case- control study' (the Interphone Study Group, in Cancer Epidemiology, in press)

b. 'Estimation of RF energy absorbed in the brain from mobile phones in the Interphone study' (Cardis et al., Occupational and Environmental Medicine, in press)

c. 'Risk of brain tumours in relation to estimated RF dose from mobile phones -- results from five Interphone countries' (Cardis et al., Occupational and Environmental Medicine, in press)

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by World Health Organization/International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Cell phones and cancer: Assessment classifies radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans

ScienceDaily (May 31, 2011) — The WHO/International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B), based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer1, associated with wireless phone use.

Background

Over the last few years, there has been mounting concern about the possibility of adverse health effects resulting from exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, such as those emitted by wireless communication devices. The number of mobile phone subscriptions is estimated at 5 billion globally.

From May 24-31 2011, a Working Group of 31 scientists from 14 countries has been meeting at IARC in Lyon, France, to assess the potential carcinogenic hazards from exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields. These assessments will be published as Volume 102 of the IARC Monographs, which will be the fifth volume in this series to focus on physical agents, after Volume 55 (Solar Radiation), Volume 75 and Volume 78 on ionizing radiation (X-rays, gamma-rays, neutrons, radio-nuclides), and Volume 80 on non-ionizing radiation (extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields).

The IARC Monograph Working Group discussed the possibility that these exposures might induce long-term health effects, in particular an increased risk for cancer. This has relevance for public health, particularly for users of mobile phones, as the number of users is large and growing, particularly among young adults and children.

The IARC Monograph Working Group discussed and evaluated the available literature on the following exposure categories involving radiofrequency electromagnetic fields:

occupational exposures to radar and to microwaves;environmental exposures associated with transmission of signals for radio, television and wireless telecommunication; andpersonal exposures associated with the use of wireless telephones.

Results

The evidence was reviewed critically, and overall evaluated as being limited2 among users of wireless telephones for glioma and acoustic neuroma, and inadequate3 to draw conclusions for other types of cancers. The evidence from the occupational and environmental exposures mentioned above was similarly judged inadequate. The Working Group did not quantitate the risk; however, one study of past cell phone use (up to the year 2004), showed a 40% increased risk for gliomas in the highest category of heavy users (reported average: 30 minutes per day over a 10-year period).

Conclusions

Dr Jonathan Samet (University of Southern California, USA), overall Chairman of the Working Group, indicated that "the evidence, while still accumulating, is strong enough to support a conclusion and the 2B classification. The conclusion means that there could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cell phones and cancer risk."

"Given the potential consequences for public health of this classification and findings," said IARC Director Christopher Wild, "it is important that additional research be conducted into the long- term, heavy use of mobile phones. Pending the availability of such information, it is important to take pragmatic measures to reduce exposure such as hands-free devices or texting. "

The Working Group considered hundreds of scientific articles; the complete list will be published in the Monograph. It is noteworthy to mention that several recent in-press scientific articles4 resulting from the Interphone study were made available to the working group shortly before it was due to convene, reflecting their acceptance for publication at that time, and were included in the evaluation.

A concise report summarizing the main conclusions of the IARC Working Group and the evaluations of the carcinogenic hazard from radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (including the use of mobile telephones) will be published in The Lancet Oncology in its July 1 issue, and in a few days online.

Notes:

1. International experts shared the complex task of tackling the exposure data, the studies of cancer in humans, the studies of cancer in experimental animals, and the mechanistic and other relevant data. 1 237 913 new cases of brain cancers (all types combined) occurred around the world in 2008 (gliomas represent 2/3 of these). Source: Globocan 2008

2. 'Limited evidence of carcinogenicity': A positive association has been observed between exposure to the agent and cancer for which a causal interpretation is considered by the Working Group to be credible, but chance, bias or confounding could not be ruled out with reasonable confidence.

3. 'Inadequate evidence of carcinogenicity': The available studies are of insufficient quality, consistency or statistical power to permit a conclusion regarding the presence or absence of a causal association between exposure and cancer, or no data on cancer in humans are available.

4 a. 'Acoustic neuroma risk in relation to mobile telephone use: results of the INTERPHONE international case- control study' (the Interphone Study Group, in Cancer Epidemiology, in press)

b. 'Estimation of RF energy absorbed in the brain from mobile phones in the Interphone study' (Cardis et al., Occupational and Environmental Medicine, in press)

c. 'Risk of brain tumours in relation to estimated RF dose from mobile phones -- results from five Interphone countries' (Cardis et al., Occupational and Environmental Medicine, in press)

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by World Health Organization/International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Research creates nanoparticles perfectly formed to tackle cancer

ScienceDaily (June 8, 2011) — Researchers from the University of Hull have discovered a way to load up nanoparticles with large numbers of light-sensitive molecules to create a more effective form of photodynamic therapy (PDT) for treating cancer.

Photodynamic therapy uses molecules which, when irradiated with light, cause irreparable damage to cells by creating toxic forms of oxygen, called reactive oxygen species. Most PDT works with individual light-sensitive molecules -- but the new nanoparticles could each carry hundreds of molecules to a cancer site.

A number of different light-sensitive molecules -- collectively known as photosensitisers -- are used in PDT and each absorbs a very specific part of the light spectrum. The research team -- from the University of Hull's Department of Chemistry -- placed one kind of photosensitiser inside each nanoparticle and another on the outside, which meant that far more reactive oxygen species could be created from the same amount of light. The findings are published in the current issue of Molecular Pharmaceutics.

The nanoparticles have also been designed to be the perfect size and shape to penetrate easily into the tumour, as lead researcher, Dr Ross Boyle, explains.

"Small cancer tumours get nutrients and oxygen by diffusion, but once tumours reach a certain size, they need to create blood vessels to continue growing, " he says. "These new blood vessels, or neovasculature, are 'leaky' because the vessel walls are not as tightly knit as normal blood vessels. Our nanoparticles have been designed so the pressure in the blood vessels will push them through the space between the cells to get into the tumour tissue."

The nanoparticles are made from a material that limits the leaching of its contents while in the bloodstream, but when activated with light, at the tumour, the toxic reactive oxygen species can diffuse freely out of the particles; meaning that damage is confined to the area of the cancer.

The researchers tested the nanoparticles on colon cancer cells, and while they were able to penetrate the cells, they also found that the nanoparticles could still be effective when near -- rather than inside -- the cancer cells.

"Some types of cancer cell are able to expel conventional drugs, so if we can make this kind of therapy work simply by getting the nanoparticles between the cancer cells, rather than inside them, it could be very beneficial," says Dr Boyle.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of Hull.

Journal Reference:

Maheshika Kuruppuarachchi, Huguette Savoie, Ann Lowry, Cristina Alonso, and Ross W. Boyle. Polyacrylamide Nanoparticles as a Delivery System in Photodynamic Therapy. Molecular Pharmaceutics, 2011; 110316145246004 DOI: 10.1021/mp200023y

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

'I'm a tumor and I'm over here!' Nanovaults used to prod immune system to fight cancer

ScienceDaily (May 4, 2011) — UCLA scientists have discovered a way to wake up the immune system to fight cancer by delivering an immune system-stimulating protein in a nanoscale container called a vault directly into lung cancer tumors, harnessing the body's natural defenses to fight disease growth.

The vaults, barrel-shaped nanoscale capsules found in the cytoplasm of all mammalian cells, were engineered to slowly release a protein, the chemokine CCL21, into the tumor. Pre-clinical studies in mice with lung cancer showed that the protein stimulated the immune system to recognize and attack the cancer cells, potently inhibiting cancer growth, said Leonard Rome, a researcher at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, associate director of the California NanoSystems Institutes and co-senior author of the study.

"Researchers have been working for many years to develop effective immune therapies to treat cancer, with limited success," said Rome, who has been studying vaults for decades. "In lung tumors, the immune system is down-regulated and what we wanted to do was wake it up, find a way to have the cancer say to the immune system, 'Hey, I'm a tumor and I'm over here. Come get me.' "

The study appears in the May 3, 2011 issue of PLoS ONE, a peer-reviewed journal of the Public Library of Science.

The new vault delivery system, which Rome characterized as "just a dream" three years ago, is based on a 10-year, on-going research effort focusing on using a patient's white blood cells to create dendritic cells, cells of the immune system that process antigen material and present it on the surface to other immune system cells. A Phase I study that is part of the effort, led by ULCA's Dr. Steven Dubinett, used a replication-deficient adenovirus to infect the dendritic cells and prompt them to over-secrete CCL21, the first time the chemokine has been administered to humans. The engineered cells -- 10 million at a time -- were then injected directly into the patient's lung cancer to stimulate an immune response.

The early phase study has shown the dendritic cell method is safe, has no side effects and seems to boost the immune response -- Dubinett and his team found T lymphocytes circulating in the blood stream with specific cytokine signatures, indicating that the lymphocytes were recognizing the cancer as a foreign invader.

However, the process to generate dendritic cells from the white blood cells and engineer them to over-secrete CCL21 is cumbersome, expensive and time-consuming. It also requires a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) suite, a specialized laboratory critical for the safe growth and manipulation of cells, which many research institutions do not have.

"It gets complicated," said Dubinett, director of the Lung Cancer Program at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, member of the California NanoSystems Institute and a co-senior author of the paper. "You have to have a confluence of things happen -- the patient has to be clinically eligible for the study and healthy enough to participate, we have to be able to grow the cells and then genetically modify them and give them back."

There also was the challenge of patient-to-patient variability, said Sherven Sharma, a researcher at both the Jonsson Cancer Center and the California NanoSystems Institute, professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine and co-senior author of the study. It was easier to isolate and grow the dendritic cells in some patients than in others, so results were not consistent.

"We wanted to create a simpler way to develop an environment that would stimulate the immune system," Sharma said.

In the Phase I study, it takes more than a week to differentiate the white blood cells into dendritic cells and let them grow to the millions required for the therapy. The dendritic cells are infected with a virus engineered to carry a gene that caused the cells to secrete CCL21 and then injected into the patient's tumor using guided imaging.

"We thought if we could replace the dendritic cells with a nano-vehicle to deliver the CCL21, we would have an easier and less expensive treatment that also could be used at institutions that don't have GMP," Dubinett said.

If successful, the vault delivery method would add a desperately needed weapon to the arsenal in the fight against lung cancer, which accounts for nearly one-third of all cancer deaths in the United States and kills one million people worldwide every year.

"It's crucial that we find new and more effective therapies to fight this deadly disease," Dubinett said. "Right now we don't have adequate options for therapies for advanced lung cancer."

The vault nanoparticles containing the CCL21 have been engineered to slowly release the protein into the tumor over time, producing an enduring immune response. Although the vaults protect the packed CCL21, they act like a time-release capsule, Rome said.

Rome, Dubinett and Sharma plan to test the vault delivery method in human studies within the next three years and hope the promising results found in the pre-clinical animal tumor models will be replicated. If such a study is approved, it would be the first time a vault nanoparticle is used in humans for a cancer immunotherapy.

The vault nanoparticle would require only a single injection into the tumor because of the slow-release design, and it eventually could be designed to be patient specific by adding the individual's tumor antigens into the vault, Dubinett said. The vaults may also be targeted by adding antibodies to their surface that recognize receptors on the tumor. The injection could then be delivered into the blood stream and the vault would navigate to the tumor, a less invasive process that would be easier on the patients. The vault could also seek out and target tumors and metastases too small to be detected with imaging.

Rome cautioned that the vault work is at a much earlier stage than Dubinett's dendritic cell research, but he is encouraged by the early results. The goal is to develop an "off-the-shelf" therapy using vaults.

"In animals, the vault nanoparticles have proven to be as effective, if not more effective, than the dendritic cell approach," he said. "Now we need to get the vault therapy approved by the FDA for use in humans."

Because a vault is naturally occurring particle, it causes no harm to the body and is potentially an ideal vehicle for use in delivery of personalized therapies, Rome said.

The study was funded by a University of California Discovery Grant, a Jonsson Cancer Center fellowship grant, the National Institutes of Health, the UCLA Lung Cancer Program, the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Research Funds and the University of California's Tobacco-related Disease Program Award.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences.

Journal Reference:

Upendra K. Kar, Minu K. Srivastava, Åsa Andersson, Felicita Baratelli, Min Huang, Valerie A. Kickhoefer, Steven M. Dubinett, Leonard H. Rome, Sherven Sharma. Novel CCL21-Vault Nanocapsule Intratumoral Delivery Inhibits Lung Cancer Growth. PLoS ONE, 2011; 6 (5): e18758 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0018758

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

'I'm a tumor and I'm over here!' Nanovaults used to prod immune system to fight cancer

ScienceDaily (May 4, 2011) — UCLA scientists have discovered a way to wake up the immune system to fight cancer by delivering an immune system-stimulating protein in a nanoscale container called a vault directly into lung cancer tumors, harnessing the body's natural defenses to fight disease growth.

The vaults, barrel-shaped nanoscale capsules found in the cytoplasm of all mammalian cells, were engineered to slowly release a protein, the chemokine CCL21, into the tumor. Pre-clinical studies in mice with lung cancer showed that the protein stimulated the immune system to recognize and attack the cancer cells, potently inhibiting cancer growth, said Leonard Rome, a researcher at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, associate director of the California NanoSystems Institutes and co-senior author of the study.

"Researchers have been working for many years to develop effective immune therapies to treat cancer, with limited success," said Rome, who has been studying vaults for decades. "In lung tumors, the immune system is down-regulated and what we wanted to do was wake it up, find a way to have the cancer say to the immune system, 'Hey, I'm a tumor and I'm over here. Come get me.' "

The study appears in the May 3, 2011 issue of PLoS ONE, a peer-reviewed journal of the Public Library of Science.

The new vault delivery system, which Rome characterized as "just a dream" three years ago, is based on a 10-year, on-going research effort focusing on using a patient's white blood cells to create dendritic cells, cells of the immune system that process antigen material and present it on the surface to other immune system cells. A Phase I study that is part of the effort, led by ULCA's Dr. Steven Dubinett, used a replication-deficient adenovirus to infect the dendritic cells and prompt them to over-secrete CCL21, the first time the chemokine has been administered to humans. The engineered cells -- 10 million at a time -- were then injected directly into the patient's lung cancer to stimulate an immune response.

The early phase study has shown the dendritic cell method is safe, has no side effects and seems to boost the immune response -- Dubinett and his team found T lymphocytes circulating in the blood stream with specific cytokine signatures, indicating that the lymphocytes were recognizing the cancer as a foreign invader.

However, the process to generate dendritic cells from the white blood cells and engineer them to over-secrete CCL21 is cumbersome, expensive and time-consuming. It also requires a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) suite, a specialized laboratory critical for the safe growth and manipulation of cells, which many research institutions do not have.

"It gets complicated," said Dubinett, director of the Lung Cancer Program at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, member of the California NanoSystems Institute and a co-senior author of the paper. "You have to have a confluence of things happen -- the patient has to be clinically eligible for the study and healthy enough to participate, we have to be able to grow the cells and then genetically modify them and give them back."

There also was the challenge of patient-to-patient variability, said Sherven Sharma, a researcher at both the Jonsson Cancer Center and the California NanoSystems Institute, professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine and co-senior author of the study. It was easier to isolate and grow the dendritic cells in some patients than in others, so results were not consistent.

"We wanted to create a simpler way to develop an environment that would stimulate the immune system," Sharma said.

In the Phase I study, it takes more than a week to differentiate the white blood cells into dendritic cells and let them grow to the millions required for the therapy. The dendritic cells are infected with a virus engineered to carry a gene that caused the cells to secrete CCL21 and then injected into the patient's tumor using guided imaging.

"We thought if we could replace the dendritic cells with a nano-vehicle to deliver the CCL21, we would have an easier and less expensive treatment that also could be used at institutions that don't have GMP," Dubinett said.

If successful, the vault delivery method would add a desperately needed weapon to the arsenal in the fight against lung cancer, which accounts for nearly one-third of all cancer deaths in the United States and kills one million people worldwide every year.

"It's crucial that we find new and more effective therapies to fight this deadly disease," Dubinett said. "Right now we don't have adequate options for therapies for advanced lung cancer."

The vault nanoparticles containing the CCL21 have been engineered to slowly release the protein into the tumor over time, producing an enduring immune response. Although the vaults protect the packed CCL21, they act like a time-release capsule, Rome said.

Rome, Dubinett and Sharma plan to test the vault delivery method in human studies within the next three years and hope the promising results found in the pre-clinical animal tumor models will be replicated. If such a study is approved, it would be the first time a vault nanoparticle is used in humans for a cancer immunotherapy.

The vault nanoparticle would require only a single injection into the tumor because of the slow-release design, and it eventually could be designed to be patient specific by adding the individual's tumor antigens into the vault, Dubinett said. The vaults may also be targeted by adding antibodies to their surface that recognize receptors on the tumor. The injection could then be delivered into the blood stream and the vault would navigate to the tumor, a less invasive process that would be easier on the patients. The vault could also seek out and target tumors and metastases too small to be detected with imaging.

Rome cautioned that the vault work is at a much earlier stage than Dubinett's dendritic cell research, but he is encouraged by the early results. The goal is to develop an "off-the-shelf" therapy using vaults.

"In animals, the vault nanoparticles have proven to be as effective, if not more effective, than the dendritic cell approach," he said. "Now we need to get the vault therapy approved by the FDA for use in humans."

Because a vault is naturally occurring particle, it causes no harm to the body and is potentially an ideal vehicle for use in delivery of personalized therapies, Rome said.

The study was funded by a University of California Discovery Grant, a Jonsson Cancer Center fellowship grant, the National Institutes of Health, the UCLA Lung Cancer Program, the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Research Funds and the University of California's Tobacco-related Disease Program Award.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences.

Journal Reference:

Upendra K. Kar, Minu K. Srivastava, Åsa Andersson, Felicita Baratelli, Min Huang, Valerie A. Kickhoefer, Steven M. Dubinett, Leonard H. Rome, Sherven Sharma. Novel CCL21-Vault Nanocapsule Intratumoral Delivery Inhibits Lung Cancer Growth. PLoS ONE, 2011; 6 (5): e18758 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0018758

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Novel noninvasive tests for early cancer detection

ScienceDaily (May 3, 2011) — Researchers at last month's AACR conference in Orlando demonstrated that they are intensifying their efforts to identify and validate various types of biomarkers that are detectable in readily accessible bodily fluids such as blood and urine, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN). The goal is to detect biosignatures that are more specific and sensitive than existing diagnostic modalities, according to the May 1 issue of GEN .

"The molecular diagnostic approach is geared toward finding tumors earlier in the course of disease," says John Sterling, Editor in Chief of GEN. "This could reduce the need for more invasive and costly biopsies and imaging studies and lead to earlier therapeutic intervention."

At the AACR meeting, Harvey Pass, M.D., New York University Langone Medical Center and Cancer Center, discussed his group's experience working in collaboration with SomaLogic to develop an aptamer-based diagnostic to detect malignant mesothelioma in asbestos-exposed individuals. Dr. Pass presented data derived from the application of biomarker subsets to a blinded test set, demonstrating 100% specificity and 80% sensitivity for their ability to distinguish asbestos-exposed controls from mesothelioma cases.

Another presentation pointed out that measurement of CA125 in the blood is the test currently used to monitor ovarian cancer treatment, follow patients for recurrence, and in some cases screen high-risk individuals to detect early-stage disease. In her conference talk, Christine Coticchia, Ph.D., Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, emphasized that CA125 is relatively nonspecific for ovarian cancer and uninformative in a substantial percentage of patients. Dr. Coticchia and colleagues are studying a combination of two matrix metalloproteases, MMP-2 and MMP-9, in urine for their utility as biomarkers to predict the presence of ovarian cancer in women with normal CA125 levels.

Other research projects covered in the GEN article include work at Celera, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, University of Michigan Health System, Gen-Probe, University of California at San Diego Medical Center, Université Laval, Dianon Systems, Aarhus University Hospital, Hvidovre Hospital, University of Copenhagen, and Exiqon.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Journal Reference:

Vicki Glaser. Cancer Detection Improved with Noninvasive Testing. Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News, May 1, 2011 (Vol. 31, No. 9) [link]

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here