Here at OncoBites, a team of cancer professionals and advocates has gathered to share cutting-edge research with a non-specialist audience. We understand that jargon and isolated professional communities have made science feel inaccessible to most people, even people considering the field. In addition, paywalls on articles can make trying to investigate topics alone a challenge.... Continue Reading →
M1 Kills, M2 Heals: The Effects of Different Subsets of Macrophages in Cancer
Reading time: 7 minutes Gracie Jennah Mead Introduction Macrophages are an important part of the innate immune system. Within the innate immune system, which comprises more indiscriminate strategies that protect us from pathogens in general, macrophages engulf and break down pathogens. Macrophages are a diverse cell as they can regulate tissue development and tissue repair... Continue Reading →
Antibiotics in Cancer Treatment: Unraveling the Unseen Risks
Reading time: 3 minutes Yonika Larasati Since the advent of antibiotics more than one century ago, this class of drugs has tremendously changed humanity. In addition to treating bacteria-caused infectious diseases, antibiotics enable modern medical procedures, such as open-heart surgery and organ transplantation. Antibiotics are also essential for cancer patients. Cancer patients often face an... Continue Reading →
The Sheer Nerve of Cancer: Conversations Amongst Glioma and the Brain
Reading time: 5 minutes Anthony Tao The science of the brain has made strides since the 17th century when French philosopher Renes Descartes postulated that nerves communicate by pushing air through tiny tubes. Over a century later, it was biologist Luigi Galvani who, by electrocuting frogs, suggested that neurons talk not through air, but through... Continue Reading →
A Parasite-Cancer Relationship
Reading time: 5 minutes Jessica Desamero Parasites, such as flatworms and amoeba, are like alien invaders: they live on or inside a host organism to obtain food and can cause the host much harm. For instance, they can cause parasitic diseases with severe symptoms, some of which are fatal. Similarly, cancer cells are invasive in... Continue Reading →
Overcoming Hypoxia-Associated Radiotherapy Resistance
Reading time: 4 minutes Mia Hubert Radiation therapy has been a critical tool in the battle against cancer. Following the discovery of X-rays and their cytotoxic potential, radiation therapy was quickly employed to treat skin and breast cancers in the early 20th century1. Today, radiation therapy is effective in controlling or even curing various types... Continue Reading →
Shedding Light on Bald Scalps, Testosterone, and Skin Cancer
Reading time: 4 minutes Eoghan McGrath As a younger man peering across the kitchen table at my father’s scalp, I wondered if I was catching a glimpse of my own follicular future in its shiny freckled portents. Well, a decade, a degree in genetics, and a PhD in biochemistry later, I see my own scalp... Continue Reading →
The Need for Improved Mental Health Management for Cancer Patients
Reading time: 8 minutes Colette Bilynsky The number of people who will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime is growing, with estimates saying that by 2030, more than 26 million people worldwide will be affected by some type of cancer [1]. However, as noted throughout Oncobites, treatments are continually improving, resulting in increased patient... Continue Reading →
CAR-Macrophages: The Next Step in Solid Tumor Immunotherapy?
Reading time: 4 minutes Shan Grewal Cancer has long been a formidable adversary in the world of medicine, but recent advancements in the field of immunotherapy have offered new hope in the battle against this complex disease. Immunotherapy is a revolutionary approach that harnesses the body's immune system to target and eliminate cancer cells. One... Continue Reading →
Are We There Yet? Using Blood Samples to Optimize Cancer Care
Reading time: 5 minutes Patty Spears For many years there has been a lot of talk about the promise of using a mere blood sample to detect cancer in your body. There are many different approaches and tests that have been developed. One type of test coming to the forefront looks for circulating tumor DNA... Continue Reading →
Is Chronotherapy the Future of Cancer Treatment?
Reading time: 5 minutes Hema Saranya Ilamathi It's seven o'clock in the morning! A bright light hits my face, and I awaken before the alarm clock starts buzzing. Did you know humans have an inbuilt biological clock known as the circadian rhythm? Light stimulates this 24-hour central clock in the brain. In general, photoreceptors in... Continue Reading →
AI vs. Traditional Methods in Cancer Diagnostics
Reading time: 7 minutes Muhammad Ayhan Murtaza A pivotal moment in the evolution of human civilization occurred when the Greek Titan Prometheus bestowed fire upon humanity, defying the will of the other gods. Today, a similar transformative force is at play with the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI). At least such is the common perception.... Continue Reading →
Cells Get Overworked Too: The Effect of T Cell Exhaustion in Cancer
Reading time: 6 minutes Gracie Jennah Mead Introduction Exhausted T cells (Tex) were first discovered during chronic viral infections whereby the CD8 T cells (which are a type of immune cell that initiates killing of virally infected cells and cancerous cells) persist but can no longer clear the pathogen, this was first evident in HIV... Continue Reading →
A Single Amino Acid Change May Enable a Universal Blood Cancer Therapy
Reading time: 6 minutes Michael Marand From art to sports and even scientific research, a small adjustment in just the right place can have large reverberating benefits. In this theme, a team from the University of Pennsylvania recently shared their work in which modifying a single amino acid in a large protein revealed a potential... Continue Reading →
Multi-omics and its Applications in Oncology
Reading time: 4 minutes Susan Egbert In the ever-evolving landscape of cancer research, scientists are delving deeper into the complexities of cancer biology. One of the cutting-edge approaches transforming the field is the integration of multi-omics technologies. Multi-omics, the comprehensive analysis of various biological molecules such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and epigenomics, provides a... Continue Reading →
Jurassic Park: How Cancer Cells Fight Each Other For Dominance
Reading time: 4 minutes Eoghan McGrath This history of life on earth is marked with competition for resources, species expansion, and mass extinction events. New research1 suggests that tumors have similar backstories, and that cells which form successful tumors are lone survivors amidst a graveyard of other failed cancer cells. Barriers to Cancer Growth We... Continue Reading →
Following a Trail of Breadcrumbs: Healthy Body Cells Lead the Way When Cancer Cells Migrate
Researchers studied a trail of "tracks" left by cancer-associated fibroblasts that guided breast cancer cells in migration. These membranous trails act as communication networks, potentially offering new insights for treatments. Jessica Campbell writes.
The Dual Role of Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: Friend or Foe?
Reading time: 5 minutes Nayela Chowdhury Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an exocrine tumor of the pancreas and constitutes up to 95% of all pancreatic cancer cases. PDAC exhibits one of the poorest prognosis of all solid cancers and is associated with a very low overall and progression-free survival rate. Even though many molecular pathways... Continue Reading →
Micro-Hydrogels: Injecting New Ideas into CAR T-Cell Therapy
Reading time: 8 minutes Alex DeWalle At the core of translational oncology lies a fundamental problem: how do we kill tumor cells without harming healthy tissue? Novel therapies must directly target tumor cells to achieve this goal in a way that traditional chemotherapies cannot. CAR T-cell therapy (CAR T) is one of the most promising... Continue Reading →
Unlocking the Secrets of Pancreatic Cancer: How Super Enhancers and RNA-Binding Proteins Illuminate New Paths to Treatment
Reading time: 7 minutes Sakshi Dhavale Did you know that pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate among all the major cancers? Because of this, researchers are rigorously working to find a cure for this deadly cancer type. Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common type of pancreatic cancer and is highly lethal due... Continue Reading →
Democratizing Gene Therapy Through Viruses
Reading time: 5 minutes Kelsey Woodruff Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are a rare population of cells that have the capacity to differentiate into one of the many types of blood cells that keep your body healthy. Through a complex series of signaling events and carefully timed cell divisions, these cells repopulate the entire blood compartment.... Continue Reading →
Unlocking the Secrets of Pancreatic Cancer: How Super Enhancers and RNA-Binding Proteins Illuminate New Paths to Treatment
Reading time: 7 minutes Sakshi Dhavale Did you know that pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate among all the major cancers? Because of this, researchers are rigorously working to find a cure for this deadly cancer type. Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common type of pancreatic cancer and is highly lethal due... Continue Reading →
The Hidden Aftermath of Chemo-Radiation Therapy
Reading time: 5 minutes Nisitha Sengottuvel Cancer incites fear because of how sick it can make you and how deadly it can be. Even when cancer treatments succeed in curing a patient, the patient is still left with the aftermath of the cancer treatments. A good example of a cancer that has relatively good prognosis... Continue Reading →
DUBTACs: A new therapeutic approach targeting proteins for cancer treatment
Reading time: 4 minutes Rapon Félicités While the degradation of disease-causing proteins [1] is now possible thanks to targeted protein degradation (TPD) technologies such as PROTACs [2], new targeted protein stabilization (TPS) technologies called DUBTACs [3] have been designed to stabilize and restore proteins that may promote cell proliferation when aberrantly degraded. Tumor suppressing proteins... Continue Reading →
Post Mastectomy Choices: Exploring the Link Between Breast Implants and Cancer
Reading time: 5 minutes Nayela Chowdhury Breast cancer is a significant health concern affecting millions of people worldwide. In 2023, around 43,000 mortalities are projected to occur in the United States alone. Mastectomy is the primary curative therapy for breast cancer and involves the surgical removal of one or both of the breasts. Millions of... Continue Reading →
Antibody-Drug Conjugate Revolution in Cancer Treatment
Reading time: 3 minutes Tala Tayoun Antitumor antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are a class of therapeutic molecules used in cancer therapy. Their main purpose is to channel the drug to a specific tumor site, kill cancer cells while sparing healthy cells and minimizing collateral damage [1]. ADC comprises of three key components: (1) an antibody, (2)... Continue Reading →
Empowering the Immune System to Fight Cancer: Exploring CAR-T Cell Therapy
Reading time: 4 minutes Mallory Kane The immune system is the first line of defense in detecting and destroying cancer cells. Several mechanisms are in place to prevent and slow cancer growth. However, cancerous cells often can avoid destruction by the immune system. These cells may contain genetic mutations that make them invisible to immune... Continue Reading →
The Cost of Groundbreaking Cancer Treatment
Reading time: 5 minutes Colette Bilynsky New treatment strategies are almost constantly being tested in pre-clinical research and clinical trials, with many of them outlined in various OncoBites articles. This is incredibly important work as groundbreaking treatment strategies like CAR-T therapy have the capacity to radically improve patient outcomes. CAR-T therapy takes the patient's own... Continue Reading →
Critters in Cancer: Are Bacteria Visible to Tumor-Killing T Cells?
Reading time: 6 minutes Anthony Tao Bacteria are not often given the respect they sometimes deserve. People tend to consider them as foreign harbingers of plagues, colds, and rashes ‒ unwanted invaders that our immune systems are uniquely tasked to deport. Of course, it is very well accepted now that many of these microbes indeed... Continue Reading →
Spatiotemporal Degradation of a Specific Protein as a New Cancer Therapy
Reading time: 12 minutes Felicites Rapon Recently, chemically engineered molecules have been produced to incite the degradation of a given protein. These molecules are called PROTACs [1], which stands for PROteolysis-TArgeting Chimeras. How does the degradation of a protein work? The degradation of a protein, also called proteolysis, is achieved by the mechanism of ubiquitination.... Continue Reading →
Is Genomics Helping us With Oncology Like we Thought it Would?
Reading time: 5 minutes Susan Egbert Genomics has significantly advanced the field of oncology by elucidating the genetic components of a range of cancer types. This progress has contributed to enhanced cancer diagnoses and more efficacious treatments.1-3 From targeted therapies to immunotherapy, genomics has revolutionized the landscape of cancer care. However, the current status and... Continue Reading →
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