Throughout the relentless struggle against cancer, conventional medicine has largely depended on aggressive methods of elimination—surgical removal, radiation, and chemotherapy—aimed at eradicating malignant cells before they can overwhelm the patient. While these approaches have proven effective in many cases, they often come at a steep cost, damaging healthy tissue and leaving patients vulnerable to recurrence […]
Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), a rare but aggressive cancer of the bile ducts, poses a major challenge for doctors and patients. It’s tough to treat, with limited options beyond surgery, and systemic drugs like chemotherapy often fall short. Cisplatin, a classic platinum-based chemo drug, works against many solid tumours but has only modest effects in CCA. Worse […]
Cancers are the second leading cause of death in the world, after cardiovascular diseases. Their seriousness lies in their diversity – some can be effectively treated with surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, while others respond poorly or not at all. Improving the treatment of these diseases is therefore a major challenge. For several years, the development […]
nicotine Author: Marta Irigoyen is a postdoctoral researcher at CIC bioGUNE Tobacco smoke contains a toxic mix of more than 7,000 chemicals. Among them, nicotine is a major cigarette component associated with human tobacco consumption and addiction. Despite not being a carcinogen (an agent that is able to generate cancer), several studies have reported the […]
Recently, the results of an early human phase clinical trial have shown that mRNA technology can be successfully applied to diseases other than COVID-19, such as skin cancer. Moderna and Merck used an mRNA anti-cancer vaccine based on the same technology used to develop some COVID-19 vaccines, except that instead of using proteins from a […]
Author: José R. Pineda got his Ph.D. from University of Barcelona in 2006. Since 2007 he has worked for Institut Curie and The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission. Currently, he is a researcher of the UPV/EHU. He investigates the role of stem cells in physiologic and pathologic conditions. Cell migration is key to […]
In a paper led by Passaro and coworkers we sought to identify a functional link between the activity of a protein called calcineurin and the response of a type of leukemic cells known as “T-ALL” to microenvironmental signals. Furthermore, we wanted to determine whether interrupting these signals could affect to leukemia development, thus providing alternative […]
Inherited or somatic mutations targeting genes which encode essential cell growth regulatory proteins favor the emergence of cancer. Cells carrying these mutations acquire growing and survival advantages that trigger the emergence of the tumor. A large number of tumor-associated mutations, as well as many mutations found in the germline of hereditary cancer patients, are single-nucleotide […]
Auranofin is a gold (Au) salt classified by the World Health Organization as an antirheumatic agent. It was approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in 1985, but is no longer a first-line treatment due to its adverse effects on a long-term basis. But the drug is important in another way. The discovery that auranofin […]
“ The dose makes the poison!” This adage, attributed to Paracelsus, explains a basic principle of toxicology: a substance can produce a harmful effect only if it reaches a certain “toxic” concentration. [ 1 ] In reverse, it also means that a substance is not harmful below this toxic dose, and can even be vitally […]