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 →
Tissue Issues: Moving Towards Patient-Centered Tissue Donation for Cancer Research
Reading time: 5 minutes Patty Spears There are many issues with tissue; that is, tissue donated by patients for cancer research. Patients are often asked to donate tissue when joining a research study. Research on patient tissue is an important step to bring new discoveries from the laboratory to the clinic, which will improve the... Continue Reading →
This Rapid Cancer Test is as Easy as: Inhale, Exhale
Michael Marand Reading time: 3 minutes Albert Einstein famously said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about the solutions.” While more robust cancer treatments are indubitably necessary, cancer detection is a crucial part of providing effective patient care. Early detection... Continue Reading →
Female Fertility Challenges After Cancer
Clare Meernik Reading time: 4 minutes Fatigue. Hair loss. Loss of appetite, nausea, or vomiting. Constipation or diarrhea. Pain. Easy bruising. Bleeding. All common side effects of chemotherapy. Now, imagine you are a 25-year old woman, newly diagnosed with cancer--unsure if and when you may want to have children--and your oncologist tells you about another... Continue Reading →
Investigating the genetic basis of Graft versus Host Disease
Reading time: 5 minutes Kate Secombe The treatment for many blood cancers can be invasive and have a range of side effects. One such side-effect is known as Graft versus Host Disease (GvHD). While GvHD invokes a range of unwanted symptoms, we currently do not fully understand how and why it develops. New research by... Continue Reading →
Black in Cancer: Not Just a Week-long Event, but an Ongoing Movement
Reading time: 6 minutes Jessica Desamero Black in Cancer week, held from October 11-17, is a week-long event full of highlighting amazing Black scientists in cancer research and medicine, addressing cancer myths and disparities in the Black community, and discussing ways to diversify the cancer workforce. The Black in Cancer event was hosted by the... Continue Reading →
Biological Differences in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer by Race
Nisitha Sengottuvel Reading time: 4 minutes A study by Mitchell and colleagues published in Clinical Cancer Research sought to understand how the genetic differences between African Americans and European Americans could be changing the way lung tumors behave. In order to answer this question, the researchers looked at seven different Baltimore hospitals that had about... Continue Reading →
Metals Against Cancer: Vanadium Delivery to Neuroblastoma Cells Through Liposomes
Reading time: 3 minutes Garima Khanna Vanadium is a hard, silvery-grey, malleable transition metal. Transition metals are chemical elements that have valence electrons capable of participating in formation of chemical bonds. While the term transition has no particular chemical significance, it is a convenient name by which to distinguish the similarity of the atomic structures... Continue Reading →
Promiscuous kinase inhibitors: When having more than one partner can be good
Reading time: 4 minutes Chris Wang Unlike the Merriam Webster definition of promiscuous, describing a kinase inhibitor as promiscuous actually refers to the number of kinases it inhibits. The more promiscuous an inhibitor is, the higher number of off-targets it has. Traditional drug development strategies avoid promiscuous compounds because off-target effects can lead to side... Continue Reading →
Black in Cancer Week
October 11-17th is Black in Cancer Week! Co-founded this year by Dr. Henry J. Henderson (@DrHJHenderson) and Sigourney Bell (@siggs28), Black in Cancer Week is focused on “strengthening networks and highlighting Black Excellence in cancer research and medicine.” We are taking this week to highlight some articles written by our Black contributors and share the... Continue Reading →
The Y’s of Testicular Cancer
Reading time: 5 minutes Taylor A. Johnson Here at Oncobites, we cover all varieties of cancers, whether they are located in the brain, heart, breast, circulation, or elsewhere. Although we’ve previously discussed ovarian cancer in multiple posts (i.e. Ovarian Cancer and Infections), we have yet to discuss the homologous structure to the ovaries in men;... Continue Reading →
Stakeholders in commercialization of oncology
Reading time: 6 minutes Varshit Dusad Oncology is a vibrant research area with many exciting discoveries unfolding every year, each emerging from research labs all over the world. However, the road from innovations in the lab to successful commercial realization in the real world is long and challenging. For a new therapy and drug to... Continue Reading →
Targeting Hypoxia in Cancer Therapies: Using the Lack of Oxygen as an Advantage
Reading time: 4 minutes Jessica Desamero With cancer, the environment that surrounds a tumor, or the tumor microenvironment (TME), can be just as important as the tumor itself in terms of cancer progression and drug resistance. How can this be? First, let’s take a look at what the TME is composed of. In a tumor... Continue Reading →
Connections between the gut and the brain: the key to reducing pain after chemotherapy?
Reading time: 5 minutes Kate Secombe Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is a relatively common side-effect of some types of chemotherapy, affecting between 19 to 85% of people. It refers to a few different conditions involving damage to the peripheral nervous system. The peripheral nervous system sends signals back to the central nervous system (brain and... Continue Reading →
AACR 2020 Dispatches Part One: Examining cancer under a new molecular lens
Reading time: 5 minutes Emily Costa Every spring, researchers, oncologists, policymakers, journalists, advocacy groups, and patients from around the globe gather at AACR, a scientific conference hosted by the American Association for Cancer Research and the largest of its kind. Matching this spectrum of attendees, the conference’s programming covers a wide array of cancer-related topics,... Continue Reading →
How cancer cells dodge targeted “silver bullet” treatments: BRAF/MEK resistance in melanoma
Reading time: 5 minutes Chris Wang Like Keanu Reeves dodging bullets within The Matrix, cancer cells can dodge even carefully designed anti-cancer agents. Scientists strive to design “silver bullets,” ones which target cancer cells while sparing healthy normal cells. This "silver bullet" approach is appealing to researchers due to the promise of improved therapeutic response... Continue Reading →
Cannabis for Neuropathic Pain in Cancer
Reading time: 4 minutes Garima Khanna Marijuana, a popular plant cultivated throughout the globe has caught the eye of scientists to unravel the mysteries of it’s medicinal properties. The dried buds and leaves derived from Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica have shown potential to cater pain management. While the active cannabinoid properties in marijuana have... Continue Reading →
Shining a Light on Breast Cancer (literally)
Reading time: 4 minutes Michael Marand Surgical resection is an important part of nearly any treatment regimen for breast cancer. It is imperative that surgery achieves “clear margins,” meaning there is no cancerous tissue on the outer rim of the mass that was removed. Recall the saying, “close enough only counts in horseshoes and hand... Continue Reading →
Diet and cancer metabolism – A vulnerable axis to explore in cancer therapy
Reading time: 5 minutes Diana Moreira The need for new and improved anti-tumor therapies has led the research field to implement different strategies to reduce, and ideally cease, tumor development. With growing publications in the field of cancer metabolism in recent years, different tumor vulnerabilities are being uncovered, increasing the likelihood of finding new therapeutic... Continue Reading →
Modeling Aging and Cancer: Are Lab Mice different From Their Wild Cousins?
Reading Time: 7 minutes Josh Ghofrani Mice are the principal model organisms in biomedical research. We rely on mice because of their close genetic and physiologic approximation to humans, as well as their relative ease of care and breeding. No model system is perfect, and many limitations are widely acknowledged in the research community. However,... Continue Reading →
Telemedical Applications for Managing Cancer Care During COVID-19
Reading time: 6 minutes Andrew C. Griggs, Jordan E. Rogers, Elizabeth H. Lazzara Research Engineering and Applied Collaborations in Healthcare (REACH) Lab Patients with cancer may be at greater risk of contracting or developing complications related to COVID-19. Given the lack of a vaccine or specific antiviral therapy for COVID-19 at this time, the large... Continue Reading →
What is my disease condition?
Significance of Minimal Residual Disease Reading time: 3 minutes Aishwarya Subramanian Leukemia is a condition in which the number of white blood cells increase because of malfunctions in blood-forming tissues. White blood cells that provide immunity to the body and protect it from diseases undergo genetic alterations and mutations causing them to undergo rapid division.... Continue Reading →
The capability of companion diagnostics for selecting patients for immunotherapy
Reading time: 4 minutes Aileen I Fernandez When a foreign substance such as a cancer cell presents itself in the human body, it is able to communicate with cells of the human immune system. The cancer cell signals the immune system, telling it “Hey! Pump the brakes!”, thus instructing the immune system to not kill... Continue Reading →
Looking Ahead: How Climate Change Could Affect Cancer
Reading time: 4 minutes Brittany Avin McKelvey Climate change is a global issue with far-reaching effects on society. It is caused partly by greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, that trap the sun’s radiation in our atmosphere. While some warming and cooling effects are part of Earth’s natural cycle of climate change, the burning of fossil... Continue Reading →
Cancer and COVID-19: How do you care for patients when hospitals are danger zones?
Reading time: 7 minutes Sara Musetti Disclaimer: This article is based on summaries of academic studies and medical society guidelines. It is not intended as medical advice; if you find yourself needing to seek care during this pandemic, please contact your doctor for a discussion based on your hospital’s resources and your specific needs. The... Continue Reading →
Welcome to the (DNA) Neighborhood
Reading time: 3 minutes Rachel Cherney Six feet. Two meters. This is the length of DNA we have in each one of our cells. That’s almost the height of Michael Jordan! But those six feet of DNA need to fit into a tiny space that is between 5-10 micrometers. To put it into perspective, that's... Continue Reading →
CDK4/6 Kinase Inhibitors: Limiting Chemotherapy Toxicity
Reading time: 5 minutes Chris Wang Chemotherapy is a mainstay of cancer treatment, yet many times it is temporarily withheld or stopped due to significant toxicity. This is because chemotherapy drugs cannot differentiate between killing cancer cells and killing fast growing healthy cells, such as cells in your bone marrow. These cells divide quickly because... Continue Reading →
OncoBites Statement in Support of Black Lives Matter
This is not a normal week in America, and yet, in many ways, it is. Protesters have taken to the streets across the country and around the world to demand justice for the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, three Black Americans who have been murdered in the past month, two of... Continue Reading →
When It Comes to Cancer, Could Prevention Be the New Cure?
Larissa Biggers Reading time: 3 minutes A cure for a disease such as malaria, polio, or cancer is a treatment that eliminates it. A cure can work on an individual level or a group level. If a treatment is effective for a group such that no disease is left in the population, the condition is... Continue Reading →
Live Forever? Cancer and the Darker Side of Telomerase
Reading time: 5 minutes Brittany Avin McKelvey Many of us are enticed by the possibility of extending our lives, towards the goal of one day being able to live forever. This wish may be closer to becoming reality with the promise of some research in which the activation of only one enzyme, usually turned off... Continue Reading →
Building a Highway to Tumors
Sara Musetti Estimated reading time: 5 minutes It seems talking about the immune system and how it can fight cancer is all the rage these days, especially here at OncoBites. But talking about it can be tricky, especially because most people seldom think about their immune system. It’s a part of your body, but… which... Continue Reading →
