Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered a means of tattle-telling on prostate cancers using harmless poxviruses. The injection contains a combination of two viruses that create copies of proteins needed to send signals to the immune system of the patient. One of these proteins is a type that’s exposed on the outside of prostate cancer cells, and the other proteins are a specially designed mix of proteins that screams at the immune system. The principle seems simple, but in clinical trials, it almost doubled the mean life expectancy for patients.

2. A bunch of little metal sticks

This crazy idea comes out of a harmonic research relationship between U California and MIT. This cool treatment consists of the injection of two different types of nanoparticle rods. The first type is made of GOLD; it’s job is to float around in the blood steam and find tumors. Once it’s found them, it enters the tumor and is detected by special machinery. Doctors can use these gold nanosticks to not only locate tumors more efficiently, but they can also heat up the tumors, making them more susceptible to different treatments. (Apparently, these gold nanotubes absorb heat when they are exposed to light from an infrared laser.) The weakened tumor is then open to attack by the second type of nanoparticle rod that’s made of, get this, RUST. Good ole Iron Oxide. It all seems pretty far-fetched to me, but you can’t really argue with numbers… and the success rate in trials thus far has been undefeated.

3. NUKE EM!

Researchers at the University of Oklahoma have had phenomenal results after exposing breast cancers to microwave radiation within 2 hours of chemotherapy. In fact, in their clinical trials, it was discovered that this new technique lowered the need of a mastectomy (surgical removal of the entire breast) from 3 of every 4 women with breast cancer… get ready now… to 7 in EVERY 100 WOMEN!!  That’s not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

4. Practice Multiplication

Ok, so I’ve never heard of Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Institute either, but they’ve made huge discoveries in leukemia treatment since New Years. As I’m sure you know, leukemia destroys the cells of a patient’s immune system, leaving them with nothing to fight off diseases. However, these researchers have developed a means by which to use the stem cells from the leftover blood in umbilical cords to restore life to leukemia patients. In fact, this new technique, which results in 164 times the amount of immune system cells as the best modern treatments, has been shown in clinical trials to not only be more effective and in half the time (from four weeks to two), but of the patients in the trial, 70% show absolutely no sign of the cancer and are leading completely normal lives. Pretty good work.

5. Teach the cells to FIX THEMSELVES

This one is by far the coolest. Scientists at Fox Chase Cancer Center have stumbled upon the chaperonin trainer. Chaperone proteins play a role in making sure new proteins fold to their correct shape, because shape begets function and the wrong shape could lead to certain types of cancers. They have applied this concept to their research and come up with Bortezemib, a protease inhibitor. You see, proteases destroy bad proteins. By inhibiting the cells ability to destroy bad proteins they have forced the cell to re-shape them… with staggering results. In each case of their preliminary research on human cell cultures, they were able to reverse the effects of disease brought on by misshapen proteins because the cells FIXED THE PROTEINS. Although this one hasn’t gone into clinical trials, it shows real promise!

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Read On!

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Grey

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If this isn’t a major kick in the behind to anybody who holds prejudice against anything, then nothing will ever be. Who would have EVER thought that a creature as hideous as the naked mole rat would ever prove to be beneficial to science– much less the possibility of curing cancer.

I mean, honestly, the name isn’t even fun to say.

But sure enough, the naked mole rat has recently earned itself some respect within the scientific community, thanks to the research of Dr. Vera Gorbunova and her associate researchers at the University of Rochester in New York. Dr. Gorbunova’s work has taken cancer research down a completely new path, introducing a completely unstudied organism to the playing field.

Much like all great scientific findings, this one began with the simple observation that “Hey! I’ve never heard of a documented case of cancerous growth in mole rats,” which later graduated to “Hey! I’ve never heard of a case of cancer in squirrels either!” Using this as a diving board, the research group from Rochester eventually discovered that each of these organisms had a two-step cancer safeguard as compared to humanity’s one-step system.

That’s all. One extra gene is what keeps naked mole rats from developing cancer. Does that seem frightfully simple to anybody other than me? Welcome to science.

You see, in human cells, there is a gene called p27 that acts as a nanny, keeping our cells in check when they try to grow more than they’re supposed to. But what happens when the cells figure out a way to sneak past the nanny when she thinks they’re in bed asleep? That’s one way that we develop cancer.

So how do you fix this problem? Hire another nanny!

In the cells of not only naked mole rats, but all small and long-living rodents, there are two nannies at work: p27 and p16. Although one would think that eventually, the cells would be able to work around the second nanny as well, the data simply says no. In the entire history of ANYBODY studying naked mole rats, NOBODY has EVER written down any cancer-like traits under any circumstances. Apparently, there is something going on that is yet to be discovered.

So far, we know that both genes code for proteins that play a role in telling the cell that it’s growing too much, but when put together, the result is significantly more strict. When scientists attempted to grow mole rat cells in a laboratory for study, they found it difficult not only to mutate the cells into tumors (in a petri dish, not on the animal), but just to grow them in the first place!

What they found was that the p16 gene actually forces cells to stop growing upon physical contact with another cell, making tumors a thing of the past. Our p27 gene is supposed to do the same thing, and for the most part it does, but doubling up obviously creates a much worse environment for cancerous cells to develop.

That’s all we know for now, and it may be all we ever know in our lifetime. Science is kinda mean like that. But who knows? Maybe the cure for malaria lies within jet fuel and the a treatment for Huntington’s is at the bottom of the sea. If we can learn how to fight cancer from an unexpected source like the naked mole rat, then anything is possible.

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