While researching new ways to stop the progression of cancer, researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, have discovered a compound that has shown to prevent cancer in the laboratory.

Breeding mice with a gene for a cellular receptor that can be turned on and off-at will-not only enabled researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston to show how prostate cancer progresses, but also provides a model for studying when a drug targeting a gene will have an effect on the cancer.

Cancer causing mutations occur in our bodies every day – but luckily, we have specific genes that recognize these malignant events and keep cells from growing out of control. Only a few of these genes – called tumor suppressors – are currently known.

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.

Nimesulide, a cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor, delays the progression of precancerous pancreatic lesions in mice, according to researchers at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Recent studies have indicated that the protein known as TRPM8 plays an important role in prostate cancer: high levels of TRPM8 have been found in prostate carcinoma compared to normal prostate epithelial cells, and TRPM8 has been suggested as a specific marker and therapeutic target in prostate cancer. However, the regulation of and changes in TRPM8 during prostate cancer progression have remained unclear.

A new mouse model is providing valuable insight into the biochemical pathways that are associated with development of renal cysts and renal cell cancer. The research, published in the April issue of the journal Cancer Cell, published by Cell Press, provides new information about the relationship between hypoxia and cancer progression.