A protein illuminates the reaction Cancer

According to a new study by researchers at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, a technique that "étiquète" specifically tumors responsive to chemotherapy, represent a new strategy aimed at determining the effectiveness of a cancer treatment in the next few days the start of treatment. In the study appearing online before printing it in Nature Medicine, researchers reported the identification of a small protein that specifically recognize tumors responsive to chemotherapy. They reveal that when the protein is a molecule labelled emitting light, it can be used to see the reaction of cancer in mice, only 2 days after the start of therapy. An improved monitoring of the reaction tumor help customize the treatment of patients and to accelerate development of new drugs against cancer, said the lead author Dr. Dennis Hallahan, a professor of cancer research at Ingram and Head of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Currently, the response to chemotherapy is determined by measuring changes in the size of the tumor by using imaging techniques such as CT scanning and MRI (Magnetic Imaging Résonnance). "Two to three months of therapy against cancer is needed before we can determine whether the therapy was effective for a patient," said he. "If we can get this answer in 2 or 3 days, we could transfer the patient to an alternative therapy very quickly." The rapid assessment of tumor response is very important now, said Hallahan, given the recent breakthroughs in terms of molecular targeted therapies - chemotherapy drugs specifically involved in the growth and proliferation of cancer cells, while avoiding damage to cells healthy. "We now have a large number of molecular targeted drugs that we can choose from and their number increases each year, we are therefore at a time when the patient can be transferred from one therapy to another," said he. "But we need some tools to make the decision to use an alternative therapy with ...