chemotherapy Archives - UNC Lineberger

September 27, 2021

New York Times: Cancer Without Chemotherapy: ‘A Totally Different World’

Norman E. Sharpless, MD, and colleagues have published study findings that suggest that eliminating cellular senescence could reduce the risk of cancer relapse and metastasis and mitigate other side effects of chemotherapy.

A team of researchers, including UNC Lineberger's Norman E. Sharpless, MD, has shown that chemotherapy triggers a pro-inflammatory stress response termed cellular senescence, promoting the adverse effects of chemotherapy as well as cancer relapse and metastasis. Eliminating the senescent cells in mice prevented the side effects and relapse.

Andrew Wang, MD, a UNC Lineberger member, an associate professor in the UNC School of Medicine Department of Radiation Oncology, and an associate professor of molecular therapeutics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.

UNC Lineberger member Andrew Wang, MD, was senior author of a preclinical study published in the journal ACS Nano. Wang and collaborators found that they could improve cancer chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy treatments by delivering a combination of cancer-fighting drugs using nanoparticles.

With new funding, a UNC startup is poised to halt the most devastating effects of chemotherapy.

Compared to a control (left), mice treated with a chemotherapy drug using the device experienced significant growth reduction as confirmed by the lack of brown staining for a marker of tumor growth.

Device that drives drugs into solid tumors that are poorly vascularized opens the possibility of life-saving surgeries in cancer patients.

Neurons expressing the Topoisomerase-1 gene (green). Image by Angela Mabb, PhD

UNC Lineberger members and UNC School of Medicine researchers have found for the first time a biochemical mechanism that could be a cause of “chemo brain” – the neurological side effects such as memory loss, confusion, difficulty thinking, and trouble concentrating that many cancer patients experience while on chemotherapy to treat tumors in other parts of the body.

Physicians have long suspected that chemotherapy can accelerate the aging process in patients treated for cancer. Using a test developed at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center to determine molecular aging, UNC oncologists have directly measured the impact of anti-cancer chemotherapy drugs on biological aging.

Two UNC researchers design a biological test to individualize chemotherapy.

A team led by Cyrus Vaziri, PhD, and William Janzen at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health for research that could help make chemotherapy drugs more effective.

A new study shows combined therapy is linked to a lower chance of recurrence in women with small, HER2+ breast cancers.

Tag: chemotherapy

New York Times: Cancer Without Chemotherapy: ‘A Totally Different World’

Study: Pro-inflammatory stress response promotes chemotherapy side effects and cancer relapse

Wang published in ACS Nano

Sleep for Cells

Potential pancreatic cancer treatment could increase life expectancy

UNC researchers pinpoint chemo effect on brain cells

UNC researchers show cancer chemotherapy accelerates ‘molecular aging’

Endeavors – Chasing Pac-Man

NIH grant to improve efficiency of chemotherapy drugs

Combined therapy reduces recurrence in women with small, HER2+ breast cancers