Shaye Hagler At Oncobites, we’ve been talking a lot about the role of immunity in cancer. Understanding the immune system is vital to understanding both what drives cancer and what protects us against it. One of the biggest paradoxes in cancer research is that immune system activation is important in fighting cancer via a process... Continue Reading →
Jason Tetro What causes cancer? It’s a question that has been asked for millennia (Sudhakar, 2009) yet no concrete answer has been found. In the 4th Century BCE, Hippocrates believed the answer lied in the presence of “black bile,” which to him was one of the four major humors in the body. Over the centuries,... Continue Reading →
Varshit Dusad Methotrexate is one of the earliest drug discovered for treatment of cancer. It is listed by WHO as one of the essential medicines and has been used to treat various forms of cancer. Methotrexate has had such broad success across cancer subtypes due to its unique mechanism of action. Inside tumors, it attacks... Continue Reading →
Zina McSweeney The consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with worse colon cancer outcomes, according to research published by Brendon Guercio et al. on July 19th, 2018. Among 1,018 patients with stage III colon cancer, researchers found that replacing one 12-ounce sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) with an artificially-sweetened beverage (ASB) was estimated to lead to a... Continue Reading →
Manisit Das Not long ago Tamara mentioned in her OncoBites article that it is often hard to determine what factors drive cancer. Even after a mutation responsible for fueling cancer growth is identified, we do not always know how that mutation contributes to tumor formation. Understanding these mechanisms is however quite important. As we gain... Continue Reading →
Sara Musetti Last week on OncoBites, Beth Rogoski of PhDoodles shared with us the story of liquid biopsies, blood tests that can be used to detect cancer and evaluate treatments. Today, in a follow-up piece, we’ll go into more detail as to what technologies are making their way to market, how liquid biopsies can be... Continue Reading →
Beth Rogoyski Most would consider a blood test a bit of a pain in the arm, but except for the fantastically needle-phobic, generally not something that would keep you awake at night. Contrast that to the sentiments that spring to mind when you hear the word chemotherapy, and the two couldn’t seem more dissimilar. Despite... Continue Reading →
Tamara Vital By now you’re probably noticing a running theme at OncoBites: cancer is complicated. Cancers have many moving parts, and despite our best efforts it can be difficult to know what factors drive them. Even when we have identified causal mutations in genes, it can be difficult to figure out how these mutations contribute... Continue Reading →
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