Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Pathobiological Implications Of Muc16 Expression In Pancreatic Cancer., Dhanya Haridas, Subhankar Chakraborty, Moorthy P. Ponnusamy, Imayavaramban Lakshmanan, Satyanarayana Rachagani, Eric Cruz, Sushil Kumar, Srustidhar Das, Subodh M. Lele, Judy M. Anderson, Uwe A. Wittel, Michael A. Hollingsworth, Surinder K. Batra

Journal Articles: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

MUC16 (CA125) belongs to a family of high-molecular weight O-glycosylated proteins known as mucins. While MUC16 is well known as a biomarker in ovarian cancer, its expression pattern in pancreatic cancer (PC), the fourth leading cause of cancer related deaths in the United States, remains unknown. The aim of our study was to analyze the expression of MUC16 during the initiation, progression and metastasis of PC for possible implication in PC diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. In this study, a microarray containing tissues from healthy and PC patients was used to investigate the differential protein expression of MUC16 in PC. MUC16 …

Mitochondrial Oxidative Stress Drives Tumor Progression And Metastasis: Should We Use Antioxidants As A Key Component Of Cancer Treatment And Prevention?, Federica Sotgia, Ubaldo E Martinez-Outschoorn, Michael P Lisanti

Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine Faculty Papers & Presentations

The functional role of oxidative stress in cancer pathogenesis has long been a hotly debated topic. A study published this month in BMC Cancer by Goh et al., directly addresses this issue by using a molecular genetic approach, via an established mouse animal model of human breast cancer. More specifically, alleviation of mitochondrial oxidative stress, via transgenic over-expression of catalase (an anti-oxidant enzyme) targeted to mitochondria, was sufficient to lower tumor grade (from high-to-low) and to dramatically reduce metastatic tumor burden by >12-fold. Here, we discuss these new findings and place them in the context of several other recent studies …

Activated Krasg¹²D Is Associated With Invasion And Metastasis Of Pancreatic Cancer Cells Through Inhibition Of E-Cadherin., Satyanarayana Rachagani, S Senapati, S Chakraborty, Moorthy P. Ponnusamy, Sushil Kumar, Lynette Smith, Maneesh Jain, Surinder K. Batra

Journal Articles: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic cancer (PC) harbours an activated point mutation (Kras(G12D)) in the Kras proto-oncogene that has been demonstrated to promote the development of PC.

METHODS: This study was designed to investigate the effect of the oncogenic Kras(G12D) allele on aggressiveness and metastatic potential of PC cells. We silenced the oncogenic Kras(G12D) allele expression in CD18/HPAF and ASPC1 cell lines by stable expression of shRNA specific to the Kras(G12D)allele.

RESULTS: The Kras(G12D) knockdown cells exhibited a significant decrease in motility (P

CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that the Kras(G12D) allele promotes metastasis in PC cells partly through the downregulation …

Oncolog, Volume 56, Number 03, March 2011, Bryan Tutt, Joe Munch

OncoLog MD Anderson's Report to Physicians (All issues)

• Glioblastoma Cure Remains Elusive Despite Treatment Advances: Aggressive surgery followed by radiation therapy and chemo-therapy offers hope of long-term survival for some patients with glioblastoma, but for most glioblastoma patients, the prognosis is poor
• Assessing and Addressing the Biological Effects of Stress in Cancer Patients: Stress has long been linked to cancer progression. But the precise mechanisms by which stress exacts its pro-tumor effects are not fully understood
• MD Anderson One of Four Centers to Test Cancer Cell Detection Chip: A new test that could monitor the effectiveness of cancer treatment
• HOUSE CALL: Yoga and Tai Chi: Two distinct disciplines …