Study sheds light on treatment options for devastating childhood brain cancer

Research suggests that children with average risk medulloblastoma can receive radiation to a smaller volume of the brain at the end of a six-week course of treatment and still maintain the same disease control as those receiving radiation to a larger area. But the dose of preventive radiation treatments given to the whole brain and spine over the six-week regimen cannot be reduced without reducing survival.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

New findings offer improved therapy of early-stage, BRCA mutation-associated breast cancer

A new treatment has potential to improve the outcomes for patients with hereditary BRCA mutations and high-risk, early-stage breast cancer. These results represent the first time a PARP inhibitor has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of breast cancer returning in high-risk patients following completion of standard chemotherapy, surgery and radiation therapy.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

New nanoparticle design paves way for improved detection of tumors

Nano-sized particles have been engineered in a new way to improve detection of tumors within the body and in biopsy tissue, a research team reports. The advance could enable identifying early stage tumors with lower doses of radiation.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Extreme CO2 greenhouse effect heated up the young Earth

Although sun radiation was relatively low, the temperature on the young Earth was warm. An international team of geoscientists has found important clues that high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were responsible for these high temperatures. It only got cooler with the beginning of plate tectonics, as the CO2 was gradually captured and stored on the emerging continents.

Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Hydrogen peroxide-producing drug boosts cancer-killing effect of radiotherapy

A small drug molecule that appears to protect normal tissue from the damaging effects of radiation, may simultaneously be able to boost the cancer-killing effect of radiation therapy, according to a new study.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Genetic effects of Chernobyl radiation

Researchers utilized genomic tools to investigate potential health effects of exposure to ionizing radiation, a known carcinogen, as a result of the 1986 Chernobyl accident. One study found no evidence that genetic changes associated with radiation exposure are passed to children, while the second study documented the genetic changes in the tumors of people who developed thyroid cancer after being exposed as children or fetuses to the radiation released by the accident. Findings are being published close to the 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Common drug could be used to prevent certain skin cancers

New data suggests that an oral drug currently used in the clinical setting to treat neuromuscular diseases could also help prevent a common form of skin cancer caused by damage from ultraviolet-B radiation from the sun.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Nothing for the garbage can – Hof scientists want to research environmentally friendly plastic products from biowaste

Will there soon be packaging in the supermarket made with biowaste from local cideries or agricultural film with coffee grounds? At the Institute for Biopolymers and Sustainability at Hof University (ibp) a junior research group wants to explore the influence of natural radiation and biogenic residues on the properties and structure of biopolymers. This could make these bioplastics interesting for a sustainable product economy in the future. Among other things, biowaste from the food industry and forestry is to be used in bioplastic blends and thus fed into a natural reuse.

Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Radioactive bone cement may be safer in treating spinal tumors

A radioactive bone cement that’s injected into bone to provide support and local irradiation is proving to be a safer alternative to conventional radiation therapy for bone tumors, according to a new study.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Tumor-suppressor protein dynamics determine if tissues survive radiation

Exposure to radiation can wreak indiscriminate havoc on cells, tissues, and organs. Curiously, however, some tissues are more vulnerable to radiation damage than others. A new study now finds that cellular survival after radiation exposure depends on behavior of the tumor-suppressor protein p53 over time. In vulnerable tissues, p53 levels go up and remain high, leading to cell death. In tissues that tend to survive radiation damage, p53 levels oscillate up and down.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Opposites attract: scientists discover how mother-of-pearl self-assembles into a perfect structure

The strength and beauty of mother-of-pearl, also known as nacre, comes from its remarkably regular and uniform architecture. Until now, it was unclear how this intricate structure could be built by a multitude of single cells, all secreting materials at different locations at the same time. In a new study published in Nature Physics, researchers from the B CUBE – Center for Molecular Bioengineering at TU Dresden and European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble describe, for the first time, that structural defects in self-assembling nacre attract and cancel each other out, eventually leading to a perfect periodic structure.

Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Wissenschaftler der TU Dresden entdecken, wie sich das Perlmutt selbst zu einer perfekten Struktur zusammensetzt

Seine Stärke und Schönheit verdankt Permutt seiner bemerkenswert regelmäßigen und einheitlichen Architektur. Bislang war unklar, wie diese komplizierte Struktur durch eine Vielzahl von Einzelzellen, die alle gleichzeitig an verschiedenen Orten Material absondern, aufgebaut werden konnte. In der jetzt in Nature Physics veröffentlichten Studie beschreiben Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler des B CUBE-Center for Molecular Bioengineering an der TU Dresden und der European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) zum ersten Mal, dass sich strukturelle Defekte im selbstorganisierenden Perlmutt gegenseitig anziehen und aufheben sowie schließlich zu einer perfekten periodischen Struktur führen.

Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Explodierender Wasserstrahl im Röntgenlicht

Röntgenlaser eröffnet Blick auf ultraschnelle Prozesse in Physik, Biologie und Materialwissenschaften

Mit ultrakurzen Röntgenblitzen hat ein interdisziplinäres Forscherteam extrem schnell explodierende Wasserstrahlen abgelichtet. Ziel der Versuche am Europäischen Röntgenlaser European XFEL war, sehr kleinräumige und sehr kurze Prozesse per Röntgenholographie zu untersuchen. „Als Beispiel für so einen Prozess haben wir einen feinen Wasserstrahl gewählt, der von einem Infrarot-Laser an einer Stelle zum Explodieren gebracht wird“, sagt DESY-Forscher Johannes Hagemann, Hauptautor der Studie, die in der Januar-Ausgabe des Fachblatts „Journal of Synchrotron Radiation“ erschienen ist.

Quelle: IDW Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Surgery may offer survival advantage in certain metastatic breast cancers

Surgery, in addition to treatments like chemotherapy and radiation therapy, may increase the length of survival for metastatic breast cancer patients, according to researchers.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Errant DNA boosts immunotherapy effectiveness

DNA that ends up where it doesn’t belong in cancer cells can unleash an immune response that makes tumors more susceptible to immunotherapy, the results of two new studies indicate. The findings suggest that delivering radiation – which triggers DNA release from cells – before immunotherapy could be an effective way to fight cancers that are challenging to treat.

Quelle: Sciencedaily