Novel discovery implicating microRNA-204 in the regulation of cancer progression in malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor cells published in Neuro-Oncology, June 2012
Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs) are highly aggressive soft tissue sarcomas. The prognosis for MPNST is poor because the cancer is often not diagnosed until an advanced stage. Xijie Yu, MD PhD, and his team report on a new molecular mechanism that may modify the malignancy of a human malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST). The work was started at MIHGH and completed at Dr Yu’s new lab in West China Hospital, Sichuan University, China. The article may be found at: Gong M, Ma J, Li M, Zhou M, Hock JM, Yu, X. 2012. MicroRNA-204 critically regulates carcinogenesis in malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors. Neuro Oncol 14 (8): 1007-1017. doi: 10.1093/neuonc/nos124
New mouse model of human lung cancer bone metastases published in Oncology Letters, March, 2012
The mechanisms that underlie metastases to bone from lung cancer in humans, and how to target them, are largely unknown. This may change with the development of better animal models, such as the one recently reported by Xijie Yu, MD, PhD and his group at MIHGH and The Jackson Laboratory in Maine and at West China Hospital, Sichuan University, China.
Li M, Zhou M, Gong M, Ma J, Pei F, Beamer WG, Shultz LD, Hock JM, Yu X. 2012. A novel animal model for bone metastasis in human lung cancer. Oncology Letters 3:802-806.
Demonstration of User Gateway software prototype at World BIO-IT meeting in Boston, April, 2012
Chris Farah, PhD, demonstrated for the first time in public, the current User Gateway software prototype that links survey clinical and lifestyle data on cancer patients in space and time with geographic information on environmental exposures, such as radon, in Maine. In its current form, users can explore spatial and temporal correlations to study how combinations of exposures, and lifestyles may be linked to lung or breast cancer pathology and diagnosis.
Reporting on the successful participation in biobanking research by cancer patients in Eastern Maine at NIH National Cancer Institute’s Biorepository Research Network meeting in Bethesda, MD in April, 2012
Ms D Morrison, MA, reported on the willingness of patients, who required surgery to remove their tumor, to participate in cancer research. Because of geographic isolation, patients who live in rural communities, especially elderly patients, often do not have the opportunity to participate in biomedical research. Ms Morrison and her collaborators found that many of the barriers previously reported to deter rural people from providing informed consent to participate in cancer research did not seem to apply in this study.