Latest University of Texas Stories

SAN DIEGO, June 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Data to be presented in a poster at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) taking place in Chicago, Illinois June 3-7 by researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Biocept, Inc. show that a laboratory test developed by Biocept, Inc. for the evaluation of HER2 status of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) and Disseminated Tumor Cells (DTCs) can provide potentially valuable information to...

First cancer vaccine to show improved response rateA vaccine for one of the most lethal cancers, advanced melanoma, has improved response rate and progression-free survival for patients when combined with the immunotherapy drug Interleukin-2, according to research led by scientists from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Indiana University Health Goshen Center for Cancer Care.The findings, published in the June 2 New England Journal of Medicine, mark the first vaccine study...

Paleontologists have discovered that an improved sense of smell jumpstarted brain evolution in the ancestral cousins of present-day mammals.  The findings help explain why mammals evolved such large and complex brains, which in some cases ballooned 10 times larger than relative body size.  The researchers constructed fossils of two Early Jurassic Period mammals to provide evidence that the mammalian brain evolved in three major stages.  First by improvements in sense of smell or...

According to a new study, breast cancer patients who practice yoga experience lower stress and improved quality of life compared to those who do stretching exercises. Researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center studied 163 women with an average age of 52 who were undergoing radiation therapy for breast cancer. The women were randomly assigned yoga, simple stretching, or no instruction in yoga or stretching. Those who were assigned to yoga or stretching practiced in...

Tool may one day be used to guide patients' treatment with standard therapy alone, or personalized clinical trial upfrontA new genomic test combining multiple signatures "“ a patient's estrogen receptor status, endocrine therapy response, chemotherapy resistance and sensitivity "“ shows promise as a predictor of chemotherapy response and survival benefit in women with invasive breast cancer, according to research led by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.The findings,...

UT MD Anderson-led team finds evidence that WWP2 subverts a brake on cell growthA protein known as WWP2 appears to play a key role in tumor survival, a research team headed by a scientist at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports in an advance online publication of Nature Cell Biology.Their research suggests that the little-studied protein binds to the tumor-suppressing protein PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10), marking it for destruction by...

The harmful effects of ozone that exist at low levels in the earth's atmosphere can be reduced when charging is done at night for electric vehicles, a new study has found.In the stratosphere, ozone becomes a protective layer of film that filters out ultraviolet rays that can cause skin cancer and DNA mutations in plants, reports AFP. However, ozone that is formed from the reaction between hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide with sunlight can irritate the airways of people with cardiac or...

UT MD Anderson scientists find new biomarkers for erlotinib treatmentTwo sets of gene expression profiles predict response to a common lung cancer drug for patients that have no guiding indicators for their treatment now, scientists from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report at the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting."The only way we have to predict erlotinib's treatment benefit for patients now is by checking for certain mutations and amplifications of the epidermal growth...

UT MD Anderson scientists also link the same SNP to longer telomeresA common genetic variation links to both bladder cancer risk and to the length of protective caps found on the ends of chromosomes, scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported today at the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting.These endings or tips, called telomeres, guard against chromosomal damage and genomic instability that can lead to cancer and other diseases."We found a single point of variation...

Scientists package HDL with gene-silencing siRNA to target tumors, spare normal tissueHigh-density lipoprotein's hauls excess cholesterol to the liver for disposal, but new research suggests "good cholesterol" can also act as a special delivery vehicle of destruction for cancer.Synthetic HDL nanoparticles loaded with small interfering RNA to silence cancer-promoting genes selectively shrunk or destroyed ovarian cancer tumors in mice, a research team led by scientists from The...