2013 Cancer Center News

School of Medicine Researchers Discover New Target for Personalized Cancer Therapy
May 6, 2013
A common cancer pathway causing tumor growth is being targeted by a number of new cancer drugs and shows promising results. A team of researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine has developed a novel method to disrupt this growth-signaling pathway, with findings that suggest a new treatment for breast, colon, melanoma and other cancers.

The research team has pinpointed the cancer abnormality to a mutation in a gene called PIK3CA that results in a mutant protein, which may be an early cancer switch. By disrupting the mutated signaling pathway, the Case Western Reserve team, led by John Wang, associate professor in the Department of Genetics and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, inhibited the growth of cancer cells, opening the possibility to new cancer therapies. [more]

New Minimally Invasive, MRI-Guided Laser Treatment for Brain Tumor Found to be Promising in Study
April 5, 2013
The first-in-human study of the NeuroBlate™ Thermal Therapy System finds that it appears to provide a new, safe and minimally invasive procedure for treating recurrent glioblastoma (GBM), a malignant type of brain tumor. The study, which appears April 5 in the Journal of Neurosurgery online, was written by lead author Andrew Sloan, MD, Director of Brain Tumor and Neuro-Oncology Center at University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center, UH Seidman Cancer Center and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, who also served as co-Principal Investigator, as well as Principal Investigator Gene Barnett, MD, Director of the Brain Tumor and Neuro-Oncology Center at Cleveland Clinic and Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, and colleagues from UH, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland Clinic Florida, University of Manitoba and Case Western Reserve University. [more]

New MRI method fingerprints tissues and diseases, leading to earlier, quicker diagnoses
March 17, 2013
A new method of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could provide early identification of specific cancers, multiple sclerosis, heart disease and other maladies, researchers at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center write in the journal Nature. [more]

Collaboration and Innovation Win School of Medicine Grant to Study Gastric Cancer
February 7, 2013
The Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine has received a $220,000 grant from the DeGregorio Family Foundation to study gastric cancers, which remain among the most deadly diseases.

The two-year grant from the foundation, which focuses on stomach and esophageal cancer research and education, will support studies aimed at identifying and developing more effective treatments for gastric and esophageal malignancies. [more]

Researchers Discover Promising Prognostic Marker for Aggressive Breast Cancer
January 23, 2013
A team of researchers led by Goutham Narla, MD, PhD, at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Case Medical Center, and collaborators at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Erasmus Medical Center, have discovered a gene variant that drives the spread of breast cancer. Published in Scientific Translational Medicine, the study lays the early foundation for predicting which breast cancer patients may develop more aggressive disease and for designing more effective treatments. [more]