Welcome to OncoBites!

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 →

Featured post

Tumor-on-a-chip: A Better Method for Drug Discovery?

Reading time: 7 minutes Nayela Chowdhury Conventional 2D and 3D models of cancer have widely been utilized in pre-clinical drug development; however, neither of the platforms mimics the dynamic interactions that occur in living tumors. In vivo studies (for example, in small animal models)  have been central in translational cancer research and have contributed largely... Continue Reading →

‘Ubiquitous’ Ubiquitination Pathway and Cancer

Reading time: 4 minutes Deepika Jayaprakash What is common to eukaryotic organisms like animals, plants, fungi, and unicellular organisms? Ubiquitous Ubiquitin!   Ubiquitin (ub) is a small protein found in all eukaryotes that when attached to its target protein can bring about a myriad of cellular processes. The first observed effect of ubiquitination was degradation of... Continue Reading →

Non-small cell lung cancer and immunotherapy

Reading time: 4 minutes Indiwari Gopallawa Cancer is the second leading cause of death after cardiovascular diseases in the United States and has a major impact on society. Lung cancer is the second most common cancer type and is associated with lower survival rates and higher cancer-related deaths, accounting for 25% of all cancer-related deaths... Continue Reading →

3D Screening of Compounds for Cancer Therapy

Reading time: 4 minutes Sydney Scatigno Over the last couple of decades, cancer research has made strides in improving the pre-clinical assessment of novel compounds. Compound screening, the process of assessing new compounds for efficacy, across various cell lines is an important step in finding the optimal drug candidate downstream in the drug development process.... Continue Reading →

Can the Bacteria in Our Gut Cause Liver Cancer?

Reading time: 4 minutes Hannah Young  Tiny microscopic bacterial communities that live within and on us are known as the human microbiome. Research linking the human microbiome to cancer has skyrocketed in the last two decades and has largely focused on the relationship between the microbiome of the digestive tract with stomach and intestinal cancer.... Continue Reading →

How Herbal and Dietary Supplements Affect Oncologic Drugs

Reading time: 5 minutes Susan Egbert Statistics show that about 80 percent of the world’s population consume herbal/dietary supplements without specific recommendations to take them1, with some cancer patients using herbal/dietary supplements to alleviate their symptoms (e.g. pain, nausea, etc),2,3,4,5.  Generally, patients consider herbal/dietary supplements “safe” since they are “natural,” however, herb-drug interactions (HDI) (e.g.... Continue Reading →

Cancer Neuroscience: A New Field

Reading time: 6 minutes Ana Isabel Castillo Orozco "Cancer Neuroscience": This is the name given to a novel and exciting field that aims to study the complex interactions between the nervous system and cancer development. In recent years, increasing evidence has come to light that neuronal activity is crucial in regulating cancer initiation and progression.... Continue Reading →

Transmissible Tumors in Tasmanian Devils

Reading time: 3 minutes Hannah Young Cancer is generally thought to be a disease that develops from one cell that eventually divides and becomes a tumor within an individual; how this cell becomes cancerous differs depending on the initiating event. While some cancers are initiated through a series of mutations in tumor suppressors or oncogenes,... Continue Reading →

Bacterial Fortification for Cancer Therapeutics

Reading time: 3 minutes Bhavuk Garg Cancer treatment options have undergone multiple strategic shifts over the course of the last century starting with resection and moving to chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and chemical inhibitors. Major challenges faced by many therapeutics are adverse toxic reactions inflicted on the patients and the development of therapeutic resistance due to high... Continue Reading →

Why do we need mice models in the study of cancer?

Namrata Nilavar Reading time: 5 minutes During the COVID-19 pandemic, many researchers have ‘simulated’ the progression of the pandemic, which often involves researchers using a computer program that allows them to understand how the pandemic might pan out. These programs can help us predict ‘real-world’ scenarios. Similarly, we can simulate or imitate the progression of... Continue Reading →

Mass Spectrometry Advances in Oncology

Reading time: 5 minutes Susan Egbert As technology has been advancing exponentially over the years, more efficient diagnostic tools have been developed for cancer detection.  Recent studies1,2,3 have shown the need for this advancement, as current diagnostic tools are still not adequate enough to detect cancer.  One of the new tools that have been advancing,... Continue Reading →

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