Integrating Mental Health into Oncology: Assessing Depression Among Cancer Patients Using the Beck Depression Inventory-II

Reading time: 3 minutes Maya Razmi Understanding depression in cancer patients is crucial for holistic care. This study highlights the prevalence of depression using the Beck Depression Inventory-II, emphasizing the need for integrated mental health support in oncology. Oftentimes, when we think of oncology research, we think of novel diagnostics and therapeutics. However, cancer is... Continue Reading →

October 30, 2024 0

Uncovering how chronic stress induces metastasis

Reading time: 8 minutes Colin Ong For most of us, stress is an inevitable facet of life. Any internal or external stimulus such as encountering a bear while hiking will trigger stress in our bodies. Remarkably, our bodies respond through a series of orchestrated biochemical and physiological changes as a way of coping with stress.... Continue Reading →

October 17, 2024 0

The heart wants what it wants–but what about its tumors?

Reading time: 3 minutes Muhammad Ayhan Murtaza In Greek mythology, the heart was often seen as the seat of emotion and the source of life itself. The god Zeus, for instance, was known to follow his heart's desires without hesitation. As Emily Dickinson famously wrote, "The heart wants what it wants – or else it... Continue Reading →

October 2, 2024 0

The Stress-Cancer Connection: Fact or Fiction?

Reading time: 5 minutes Hema Saranya Ilamathi It’s Monday morning! The alarm goes off, and your mind immediately floods with thoughts: meetings with the boss, deadlines to meet, the week’s workload, and the rush to get to work on time. The stress is already kicking in—sound familiar?. In a competitive and fast-paced world, stress has... Continue Reading →

September 18, 2024 0

A sun-sational study on vitamin D and cancer

Reading time: 4 minutes Anthony Tao Sunny weather can make the difference between a bleak and mundane work day versus a day filled with joy and festivity. People generally feel better when the sun's out. Foods taste better, music sounds livelier, and the air feels more hopeful. And the need for hope is perhaps most... Continue Reading →

September 4, 2024 0

Talk to Your Doctor: Shared Decision Making in Cancer Therapy

Reading time: 5 minutes Sara Musetti Jenkins, PhD Being diagnosed with cancer is one of the scariest things to ever happen to many people. Regardless of whether it comes suddenly and without warning or after waiting, agonizingly, for test results, it is nearly impossible to prepare for the way it impacts you. Many patients find... Continue Reading →

August 21, 2024 0

From Algorithms to Articles: AI in Scientific and Medical Writing and Application

Reading time: 5 minutes Keighley Reisenauer, Ph.D Chat Generative Pre‐trained Transformer (ChatGPT; OpenAI, San Francisco, CA) and other artificial intelligence (AI)-based generative software have taken hold within social media and creative spheres, to both the delight and annoyance of the users within those spaces. Initially, outputs were flawed or, in some cases, completely incorrect, leading... Continue Reading →

August 7, 2024 0

Chordoma: Challenges, Treatments, and Future Approaches

By Christina Andrea Alvear Reading time: 5 minutes What is Chordoma and how is it Treated? Headaches, facial numbness, and double vision can be associated with mild conditions such as migraines and low blood sugar. Unfortunately, for some patients, this could be a sign of a difficult to treat condition. A chordoma is a rare... Continue Reading →

July 31, 2024 0

TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK: COMBINING CAR-T AND CRISPR/CAS9 TO TREAT CANCER?

Reading time: 5 minutes Yousra Iftequar You know what they say, “It takes two flints to make a fire.” Researchers have exactly put that into action and have made an effort to combine these two revolutionary techniques. WHAT IS CAR T-CELL IMMUNOTHERAPY? Immunotherapy utilizing the body's immune system has emerged as a promising new approach... Continue Reading →

July 17, 2024 0

Reasons for Increased Prevalence of Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer

Reading time: 3 minutes Colette Bilynsky A significant portion of my PhD research was related to colorectal cancer (CRC), so I had seen in the academic literature that the incidence rate of CRC was increasing for people under 50 years of age. Despite this, I was still surprised when on my social media I started... Continue Reading →

June 26, 2024 0

Putting a Backpack on Cells to Treat Cancer

Reading time: 4 minutes Colette Bilynsky The wonders of cellular therapies and immunotherapies have been often discussed here on Oncobites. But one of the challenges here is that these strategies are dependent on immune cells' ability to reach tumors and still function. However, tumors will often try to evade and stop the immune system from... Continue Reading →

May 14, 2024 0

Neural Networks in Neurosurgery: The Role of AI as a Surgical Assistant

Reading time: 5 minutes Anthony Tao The modern computer has become a powerful part of society's infrastructure. Among millions of other things, computers are critical for facilitating financial services, research, communications, and politics. However, we can all perhaps agree that one of their LEAST important functions is the ability to recognize cats. However, in 2012,... Continue Reading →

May 8, 2024 0

The Balancing Act of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors: Immune-related Adverse Events

Reading time: 5 minutes Karli Norville Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have been so impactful in the treatment of cancer in recent years that the basic research supporting their development was the subject of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1). Despite their clinical success, the occurrence of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) within a... Continue Reading →

May 1, 2024 0

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 →

April 10, 2024 1

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 →

April 3, 2024 0

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 →

March 20, 2024 0

A Parasite-Cancer Relationship

Reading time: 5 minutes Jessica Desamero, PhD 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... Continue Reading →

March 13, 2024 0

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 →

March 6, 2024 0

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 →

February 28, 2024 0

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 →

February 21, 2024 0

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 →

February 14, 2024 0

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 →

February 7, 2024 0

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 →

January 31, 2024 1

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 →

January 24, 2024 0

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 →

January 17, 2024 0

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 →

January 10, 2024 0

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 →

January 3, 2024 0

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 →

December 13, 2023 0

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.

December 6, 2023 0

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 →

November 29, 2023 0

Author: OncoBites