Medical Bulletin 28/March/2023

Here are the top medical news for the day:

Cancer cells with thicker glycocalyx barrier are better at evading immune cells: Study

Cancer cells often form the glycocalyx with high levels of cell-surface mucins, which are thought to help protect the cancer cell from immune cell attack. However, a physical understanding of this barrier has remained limited, especially as it relates to cell-based cancer immunotherapies, which involve removing immune cells from a patient, modifying them to seek and destroy cancer, and then putting them back into the patient’s body.

One of the ways that cancer cells hide from the body’s immune system is by forming a thin surface barrier called the glycocalyx. In a new study, researchers examined the material properties of this barrier with unprecedented resolution, revealing information that could help improve current cell-based cancer immunotherapies.

Reference:

AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY MEETING:Discover BMB

Research shows bodies of people with mental illness to be biologically older than their actual age

People with mental health disorders tend to have shorter lives, and poorer quality health, than the general population. Estimates of the effect vary according to the mental health condition. Often people with poor mental health show an increased tendency to develop conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, and these conditions tend to worsen with age. A 2019 study found that on average people with mental disorders had shorter life expectancy (in comparison to the general population) by around 10 years for men and seven years for women.

New research shows that people with a lifetime history of mental disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, or anxiety disorders have blood markers suggesting that they are older than their actual age. This may go some way to explaining why people with mental health problems tend to have shorter lifespans and more age-related diseases than the general population.

Reference:

EUROPEAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION MEETING 31st European Congress of Psychiatry

Two promising molecular targets for drug development in recurrent and metastatic cervical cancer identified in new study

Recurrent cervical cancer may manifest itself in the form of a local recurrence or a metastatic disease. When cancer spreads from part of its origin to other parts of the body it is said to have metastasized.

NRG Oncology GOG-0240 is the phase 3 randomized trial which demonstrated that the incorporation of bevacizumab with chemotherapy resulted in a statistically significant and clinically meaningful survival benefit for women with recurrent and metastatic cervical carcinoma (NCT00803062). GOG-0240 was a proof of concept in anti-angiogenesis therapy and a proof of principle in supportive care and led directly to an indication for bevacizumab in this disease in over 60 countries. Whole genome sequencing and whole exome sequencing of tumor samples obtained in GOG-0240 suggest that ARID1A and PIK3CA could represent potential targets for drug development in the recurrent/metastatic cervical cancer space. These results were presented by lead author Anjali Y. Hari, MD of the University of California, Irvine during the late-breaking oral session of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology’s (SGO) Annual Meeting in March 2023. NRG Oncology designed and led this trial which was conducted in the National Clinical Trials Network with funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Reference:

Hari AY, Sill MW, Monk BJ, Birrer MJ, Penson RT, Lankes HA, Filiaci V, Jones C, Reeves C, Szot C, Ramirez NC, Huang H, Ramondetta LM, Landrum LM, Oaknin A, Reid TJ, Leitao MM, Michael HE, Wei L, Tewari KS. PIK3CA and ARID1A mutations in recurrent/metastatic cervical cancer: The NRG Oncology/Gynecologic Oncology Group-0240 National Institutes of Health Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot. Presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology. Tampa, FL.