The Latest in Cancer Research, simplified
Reading time: 8 minutes Alex S. Woodell Prologue The tumor microenvironment (TME) is a desolate place. Nutrients are sparse, and living conditions are hostile for the resident cells. This poorly perfused, alien landscape is filled with leaky, tortuous vessels. The interstitial fluid pressure is high, severely compromising nutrient delivery mechanisms. It’s not a place …
Reading time: 5 minutes Varshit Dusad Bacteria are our unallied neighbors, which depending upon circumstances chooses to be our friend or foe. While bacteria such as E.coli have often been the workhorses for molecular biology studies, they have other uses as well. Surprisingly, they have enormous potential for cancer therapy. No, I am not talking …
Continue reading "Bacteria in Cancer therapy: Friend or Foe?"
Reading time: 5 minutes Rachel Cherney Patients with metastatic cancer usually have a lower survival rate than patients without metastatic cancer, so it is important to understand how metastatis occurs, so we can learn how to improve patient survivability. Metastatic cancer makes up about 90% of cancer deaths. Cancer metastasis occurs when tumor cells break …
Reading time: 4 mins Sara Musetti “I lit up like a Christmas tree, Hazel Grace.” This line, from John Green’s bestselling novel The Fault in Our Stars, hits hard. A young teenage survivor of cancer has had a widespread relapse picked up in one of his many routine scans since going into remission years earlier. …
Continue reading "When good cells go bad: White blood cells may aid in tumor recurrence"
Tamara Vital We’ve talked at Oncobites about how many factors can cause or contribute to cancer. We’ve discussed how tumors arise from cells that have acquired mutations (could be inherited). Many of these factors have been related to external exposures like UV exposure from the sun or cigarette smoking that cause mutations that contribute to …
Kaye Alcedo Time is of the essence when it comes to the battle with cancer. Detecting tumors at an early stage increases the chance of patient survival to more than 80%. However, despite today’s advancing technology, about 48% of patients get diagnosed at a very late stage. This is because screening methods of many, if …
Varshit Dusad Imagine a dystopian world. Here, some citizens of an otherwise well-functioning state have gone rogue and are running an anti-national agenda. They are always plundering the natural resources meant to be evenly distributed among the population. They are quite cunning as they start slowly by deviating from the laws of their natural order …
