A promising new line in anti-cancer therapy by blocking the molecular motors involved in copying genetic information during cell division is being pursued by young Dutch researcher Dr. Nynke Dekker in one of this year’s EURYI award winning projects sponsored by the European Science Foundation (ESF) and the European Heads of Research Councils (EuroHORCS).

A key challenge facing doctors as they treat patients suffering from cancer or other diseases resulting from genetic mutations is that the drugs at their disposal often don’t discriminate between healthy cells and dangerous ones -- think of the brute-force approach of chemotherapy, for instance.

Metastasis – when cancer cells dissociate from the original tumor and migrate via the blood stream to colonize distant organs – is the main cause of cancer death. A team of scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science has now revealed new details about the mechanisms controlling metastasis of breast cancer cells.

Scientists at UC San Diego have discovered how cells of higher organisms change the speed at which they move, a basic biological discovery that may help researchers devise ways to prevent cancer cells from spreading throughout the body.

Low-intensity electric fields can disrupt the division of cancer cells and slow the growth of brain tumors, suggest laboratory experiments and a small human trial, raising hopes that electric fields will become a new weapon for stalling the progression of cancer.

What do zebras, bacteria, and cancer have in common? They all can evolve in response to pressures in their environment. This simple biological fact inspired researchers from the University of California, Irvine, to study cancer in a new light.

Working with human colorectal cancer cells, a University of Minnesota team, led by cancer biologists Zigang Dong and Ann Bode, has found the potential culprit among a network of enzymes that relay signals inside cells to regulate such functions as cell growth, cancer development and programmed cell death.

When it comes to searching out cancer cells, gold may turn out to be a precious metal.

Cancer patients who receive a drug that stimulates the growth of infection-fighting white blood cells may be significantly less likely to die from a chemotherapy-related complication characterized by fever and low white blood cell levels, according to a multi-institutional study led by researchers from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The Cancer Therapy & Research Center Institute for Drug Development, in collaboration with Oncolytics Biotech Inc., a biotechnology company, has enrolled the first two patients in a new Phase II clinical study for patients with various types of sarcomas that have metastasized to the lung.

An enzyme that cancer cells eliminate, apparently so they can keep proliferating, may hold clues to more targeted, effective cancer treatment, scientists say.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine identified a combination therapy as a way to sensitize resistant human cancer cells to a treatment currently being tested in clinical trials They propose that the therapy may help to selectively eliminate cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact, providing a cancer treatment with fewer side effects.