2016 editions
- December 2016
Joao Incio on mechanisms to explain why obesity promotes cancer. - November 2016
Mike Stratton on how mutational changes in a cancer genome can point to the cause of the cancer. - October 2016
Ruth Muschel on a new target for treatments for colorectal cancer. - September 2016
Freddie Hamdy on the effectiveness of treatments for prostate cancer. - August 2016
Moshe Oren discusses the effects of the microenvironment on cancer cells. - July 2016
Richard Gilbertson on the 'bad luck hypothesis' for the cause of cancer. - June 2016
Key advances in clinical trials. - May 2016
Mark Lemmon on the underlying biochemistry of cancer. - April 2016
Roger Stupp on using alternating electric fields as treatment. - March 2016
Charlotte Vrinten on public perception of deaths from cancer. - February 2016
Guillermo Garcia-Manero on myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). - December 2015/January 2016
Nazneen Rahman on germline genetic screening in ovarian cancer.
EJC News Focus – October 2016
FGF2: a promising target in colorectal cancer?
Colorectal cancer that has metastasized to the liver has a poor prognosis. Myeloid cells such as neutrophils and macrophages, which would be expected to attack the cancer, in fact seem to promote its growth by attacking local immune cells.
At Oxford University, UK, Ruth Muschel has taken an indirect approach to this puzzle. Instead of aiming to block the myeloid cells themselves, her group is focussing on a product of these cells called fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2). At the Annual Symposium of Cancer Research UK (CRUK)'s Oxford Centre this summer, she said that FGF2 blockers, in combination, might give rise to fewer side effects and be more effective than inhibiting a driver like VEGF.
In this month's EJC News Focus, Ruth Muschel tells Helen Saul why she thinks we'll be hearing more about FGF2 in future.