Tiny Device May Help Scientists Cure Colorectal Cancer
May 6, 2021USC
Despite advances in early detection and treatment, colorectal cancer remains the third-leading cause of cancer-related death for both men and women in the U.S. But promising new therapies might be on the horizon, thanks to innovative technology from USC scientists.
The approach creates a tiny 3D replica of living human colon cells on a flexible membrane, or chip, about the size of a postage stamp. Scientists could use this colorectal cancer on a chip to study how malignant cells spread. It also may help them determine why the cells might resist certain treatments and test ways to prevent or delay tumor growth all without putting patients at risk.
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This Tiny Device May Help Scientists Cure Colorectal Cancer
Despite advances in early detection and treatment, colorectal cancer remains the third-leading cause of cancer-related death for both men and women in the U.S. But promising new therapies might be on the horizon, thanks to innovative technology from USC scientists.
The approach creates a tiny 3D replica of living human colon cells on a flexible membrane, or chip, about the size of a postage stamp. Scientists could use this colorectal cancer on a chip to study how malignant cells spread. It also may help them determine why the cells might resist certain treatments and test ways to prevent or delay tumor growth–all without putting patients at risk.
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Credit: SWOG Cancer Research Network
Researchers from SWOG Cancer Research Network, a cancer clinical trials group funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, have shown that a triple drug combination - of irinotecan, cetuximab, and vemurafenib - is a more powerful tumor fighter and keeps people with metastatic colon cancer disease free for a significantly longer period of time compared with patients treated with irinotecan and cetuximab.
Results of the SWOG study, led by Scott Kopetz, MD, PhD, of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, are published in the
Journal of Clinical Oncology. The findings are expected to change the standard of care for patients with colorectal cancer that is metastatic - when tumors spread to other parts of the body - and includes a mutation in the BRAF gene called V600E. This mutation is found in about 10 percent of metastatic colorectal cancers and tumors with the mutation rarely responds to treatment, resulting in
Evolution May Be to Blame for High Risk of Advanced Cancers in Humans
Compared to chimpanzees, our closest evolutionary cousins, humans are particularly prone to developing advanced carcinomas the type of tumors that include prostate, breast, lung and colorectal cancers even in the absence of known risk factors, such as genetic predisposition or tobacco use.
A recent study led by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center helps explain why. The study, published December 9, 2020 in
FASEB BioAdvances, suggests that an evolutionary genetic mutation unique to humans may be at least partly to blame.