CANCER: Discovered

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Friday, June 28, 2013

World's Oldest Human Tumor Discovered - Over 120,000 Years Old

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Academic Journal
Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 07 Jun 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
World's Oldest Human Tumor Discovered - Over 120,000 Years Old
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Researchers have just discovered the world’s oldest tumor, in the rib of a 120,000 year old Neanderthal in Croatia.

It is a very rare discovery considering that tumors were uncommon in prehistoric populations. Tumors in fleshy tissue decay quickly - making them difficult to identify.

Spelling: both "Neandertals" and "Neandertals" are correct.

The bone was originally excavated a hundred years ago and scientists have just found out that the it has a cavity, where a tumor, known as fibrous dysplasia, replaced what should have been inner bone structure.

Fibrous dysplasia is not considered to be cancerous, because the tumors do not spread to other tissues.

According to David Frayer, professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas, and co-author of the paper:

"It's evidence that Neanderthals suffered tumors - that they were susceptible to the same kinds of diseases that we see in modern humans. Before this, the earliest tumor in bone that we've seen goes back to an Egyptian mummy. So this is 100,000 years older than the previous tumor that has been found. There is no evidence of cancer older than this in the human fossil record."

The 30-millimeter-long left rib fragment was unearthed between 1899 and 1905 in a Croatian cave that contained around 900 Neanderthal bones - hundreds of thousands of years old.

Back in the 1980s, all the bones from the cave were x-rayed and published in a book which showed each radiogram, with the exception of the rig fragment - which appeared burned out in the x-ray image.

Finally, using new high quality X-rays, researchers have been able to look at the bone more clearly.

They found that the rib contained a cavity 18 millimeters in length and 7.6 millimeters wide. After thorough analysis with radiograph and CT scans, the scientists concluded that the cavity was the site of a benign tumor associated with Fibrous dysplasia, which "is a developmental disorder of bone in which lesions develop fibrous tissue and spicules of woven bone."

Frayer said:

"It wasn't a small tumor. It was a fairly large one, probably bulging at the base of the rib. We're not sure how far along it was, but it was well-expressed in the bone. It was in the upper third of the back, and muscles attach there that are associated with raising the arm."

Frayer also mentioned that there may have been other bones involved, but they have not been identified. Adding that, although the site contained more than 900 bones "very few of them are associated one with the other. And while there are other pathologies, none of the others show evidence of a tumor."

Neanderthals are more similar to modern day humans than previously thought.

Scientists were once sure that Neanderthals had no influence on the evolutionary line of modern day humans., However, although Neanderthals died out 30,000 years ago and were a different species of human compared to modern day homo sapiens, we share much of the same DNA.

Frayer concluded:

"We have actual nuclear DNA from a number of different Neanderthals - not complete sequences - but segments of nuclear DNA. So we know that Neanderthals have a set of unique genes that were passed on to modern humans. It's about 4 percent of our genetic makeup."

By analyzing DNA extracted from three Neanderthal bones over 40,000 years old, European and the US researchers revealed that some Neanderthal DNA were passed on to humans.

Written by Joseph Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

Visit our cancer / oncology section for the latest news on this subject. "Fibrous Dysplasia in a 120,000+ Year Old Neandertal from Krapina, Croatia"
Janet Monge, Morrie Kricun, Jakov Radov?i?, Davorka Radov?i?, Alan Mann, David W. Frayer
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Sunday, June 2, 2013

Potential Therapeutic Target Discovered For Cushing's Disease

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Also Included In: Neurology / Neuroscience;??Endocrinology
Article Date: 10 May 2013 - 0:00 PDT Current ratings for:
Potential Therapeutic Target Discovered For Cushing's Disease
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Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a protein that drives the formation of pituitary tumors in Cushing's disease, a development that may give clinicians a therapeutic target to treat this potentially life-threatening disorder.

The protein, called TR4 (testicular orphan nuclear receptor 4), is one of the human body's 48 nuclear receptors, a class of proteins found in cells that are responsible for sensing hormones and, in response, regulating the expression of specific genes. Using a genome scan, the Salk team discovered that TR4 regulates a gene that produces adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which is overproduced by pituitary tumors in Cushing's disease (CD). The findings were published in the early online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"We were surprised by the scan, as TR4 and ACTH were not known to be functionally linked," says senior author Ronald M. Evans, a professor in Salk's Gene Expression Laboratory and a lead researcher in the Institute's Helmsley Center for Genomic Medicine. "TR4 is driving the growth and overexpression of ACTH. Targeting this pathway could therapeutically benefit treatment of CD."

In their study, Evans and his colleagues discovered that forced overexpression of TR4 in both human and mouse cells increased production of ACTH, cellular proliferation and tumor invasion rates. All of these events were reversed when TR4 expression was reduced.

First described more than 80 years ago, Cushing's disease is a rare disorder that is caused by pituitary tumors or excess growth of the pituitary gland located at the base of the brain. People with CD have too much ACTH, which stimulates the production and release of cortisol, a hormone that is normally produced during stressful situations.

While these pituitary tumors are almost always benign, they result in excess ACTH and cortisol secretion, which can result in various disabling symptoms, including diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, obesity and psychological disturbances. Surgical removal of the tumors is the first-line therapy, with remission rates of approximately 80 percent; however, the disease recurs in up to 25 percent of cases.

Drugs such as cabergoline, which is used to treat certain pituitary tumors, alone or in combination with ketoconazole, a drug normally used to treat fungal infections, have been shown to be effective in some patients with Cushing's disease. More recently, mefipristone-best known as the abortion pill RU-486-was approved by the FDA to treat CD. Despite these advances in medical therapy, the Salk scientists say additional therapeutic approaches are needed for CD.

"Pituitary tumors are extremely difficult to control," says Michael Downes, a senior staff scientist in the Gene Expression Laboratory and a co-author of the study. "To control them, you have to kill cells in the pituitary gland that are proliferating, which could prevent the production of a vital hormone."

Previous studies have found that, by itself, TR4 is a natural target for other signaling molecules in the pituitary. Small-molecule inhibitors that have been developed for other cancers could be potentially applied to disrupt this signaling cascade. "Our discovery," says Evans, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and holder of the March of Dimes Chair in Molecular and Developmental Biology, "might lead clinicians to an existing drug that could be used to treat Cushing's disease."

Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release. Click 'references' tab above for source.
Visit our cancer / oncology section for the latest news on this subject. Other researchers on the study were Li Du, Marvin Bergsneider, Leili Mirsadraei, Stephen H. Young, William H. Yong and Anthony P. Heaney of the David A. Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Johan W. Jonker of the University of Groningen.
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation, the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA, and Ipsen/Biomeasure.
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