Fox Chase Cancer Center News

Washington, DC (April 28, 2011) – Studies have shown that stress can affect the immune system and weaken the body’s defense against infection and disease.  In cancer patients this stress can also affect a tumor’s ability to grow and spread. However, the biological mechanisms that underlie such associations are not well understood.

PHILADELPHIA, PA (April 7, 2011) – Baruch S. Blumberg, MD, PhD, winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Medicine and longtime Fox Chase faculty member, died of an apparent heart attack Tuesday, April 5, 2011, shortly after delivering a keynote address at a NASA conference in California.

ORLANDO, FL (April 6, 2011) – Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women, with more than 200,000 women diagnosed each year. Being exposed to estrogen over a long period of time is one factor that can increase a woman's risk of developing the disease.  One way a woman can combat this risk factor is by taking the breast cancer drug tamoxifen, which interferes with the activity of estrogen.  Now, researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have found that omega-3 fatty acids—abundant in fish—could be a safe and beneficial booster for tamoxifen therapy.

ORLANDO, FL (April 6, 2011) – Numerous studies show that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) reduce the risk of colon cancer. However, animal studies testing the NSAID naproxen or its derivative, NO-naproxen, have focused primarily on chemically-induced tumor formation. Now, researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center find that naproxen and NO-naproxen reduce tumor formation in a strain of mutant mice that spontaneously develop colon tumors. The data also suggest that naproxen blocks a gatekeeper step that initiates tumor formation.

ORLANDO, FL (April 5, 2011) – Cancer risk increases with age, and scientists have long perceived a possible evolutionary tradeoff between longer lifespan and greater risk of cancer. Now, researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center find direct evidence for that tradeoff in new data showing that expression of a key tumor suppressor protein induces premature aging in mice.

Greg H. Enders, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Epigenetics and Progenitor Cell Program at Fox Chase, will present the results at the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011 on Tuesday, April 5.

ORLANDO, FL (April 5, 2011) – Women who have children, particularly early in life, have a lower lifetime risk of breast cancer compared with women who do not. Now, Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers have identified a gene expression pattern in breast tissue that differs between post-menopausal women who had children and post-menopausal women who did not. The results will help scientists understand why pregnancy reduces breast cancer risk and may help them develop chemopreventive strategies that can provide similar protection for women who did not have children.

ORLANDO, FL (April 5, 2011) –Tumor suppressor genes normally control the growth of cells, but cancer can spring up when these genes are silenced by certain chemical reactions that modify chromosomes. Among the most common culprits responsible for inactivating these genes are histone deacetylases, a class of enzymes that remove acetyl groups from DNA-scaffolding proteins, and DNA methyltransferases, a family of enzymes that add methyl groups to DNA.

ORLANDO, FL (April 5, 2011) – A nutrient found in carrots and sweet potatoes may prove key to fighting breast cancer at early stages, according to a new study by researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center. Sandra Fernandez, PhD, an assistant research professor at Fox Chase, will present the findings at the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011 on Tuesday, April 5.