cancer

Q&A with the newly appointed director of cancer population genetics at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Combining biopsy strategies allowed doctors to find up to 33% more cancers.

The approach shows promise for extending the lives of people with a type of melanoma that contains a potent gene mutation, BRAF V600E.

“This trial was unique because it looks at younger women who haven’t gone through menopause,” said Dr. Sara Hurvitz, the study’s lead author.

“We can no longer look at this disease as one in which we should always be measuring survival in months,” said UCLA’s Dr. Edward Garon, the lead author.

The findings will both help identify women who are at highest risk of developing ovarian cancer and pave the way for identifying new therapies that can target these specific genes.

Research Brief: Researchers compared the system’s results with readings by UCLA doctors who had more than 10 years of experience.

“As our treatments become more technical and expensive, it is our responsibility to prove that these treatments lead to benefits that warrant the increased cost,” said UCLA’s Dr. Ann Raldow, the study's first author.

In a study with mice, using a technique called photothermal ablation enhanced the treatment’s effectiveness.

The findings answer questions that have been sought ever since 2005, when two Australian scientists won a Nobel Prize for their discovery of H. pylori and its role in gastric conditions.

The study could have implications for addressing value in the field of radiation medicine, a traditionally male-dominated specialty, according to UCLA's Dr. Luca Valle.

The findings stress the importance of learning how existing drugs work to repurpose them for potential use in treating other diseases.

UCLA’s Dr. Patricia Ganz is co-leading a new study to understand treatment tolerability by including the patient’s voice in cancer research.

Developed by UCLA scientists, the technique uses robots to simultaneously screen hundreds of different treatments.

“We now have a rational and logical way to develop immunotherapies going forward and a clinical development process for doing it,” said UCLA's Dr. Timothy Cloughesy.

A long-term, UCLA-led study finds that those with low- or intermediate-risk disease can safely cut treatment to four to five days.

A technique they developed coaxes pluripotent stem cells — which can can be grown indefinitely in the lab — into becoming mature T cells capable of killing tumor cells.

In this Q&A, Paul Boutros explains how scientists take cancer data, including DNA sequencing combined with clinical records, to design personal treatments.

The findings could lead to a better understanding of the metabolic needs of many different types of cancer.

Dr. David Sabatini, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology biologist and associate director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, earned the 2018 Switzer Prize for his research into influences on cell growth.

In a lab test, half of the mice that received the treatment after having a tumor removed survived for at least 60 days without the tumor regrowing.

If future research identifies changes in how lipid behavior influences certain conditions, scientists might be able to stimulate or inhibit phospholipid-reactive T cells to treat them.

The six-year-long study about endocrine treatment is contrary to expectations.

Researchers found that lower activity of an enzyme that helps maintain cells’ health along with DNA damage were associated with worse cognitive performance, such as attention and motor skills.

The study suggests that lung cancer can be detected earlier, when it is much easier to treat.