Author Archives: Marina

Keyword Proximity Searching

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Sometimes just combining search terms (keywords) with the standard Boolean ‘AND’ operator is not granular enough to focus results in to retrieve relevant articles. Typically, in addition to Boolean Operators and double quotes for exact phrases, many databases also allow specifying that the keywords searched be within a certain number of words of each other in either direction. This bridge between the narrow exact phrase search and the broad ‘AND’ operator search is called Proximity or Adjacency searching and it uses Proximity, or Adjacency, operators. Proximity searching is not applicable to searching with subject headings, it is applicable to keyword searching only. Proximity operators help increasing specificity of the search. Typically, in complex search strategies, both Proximity and Boolean operators are used.

Proximity searching is available in major proprietary databases, including Embase, Scopus, CINAHL, Web of Science, and databases on OVID platform, such as Medline and PsycINFO. Proximity searching is not available in Pubmed.

Proximity operators and rules for using them vary by database.

An example of Proximity Operators in Embase:

The databases specific Proximity Operators and the rules for their use can be found in the Help pages for each database.

Pre-metastatic Cancer Stage Intervention, Anti-Cancer Drug Ranking Algorithm, Melanoma Vaccine and More

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  • In a new National Cancer Institute study, the researchers interfered with the cancer metastasizing process at the premetastatic stage to prevent metastatic spread and shrink tumors. The scientists used myeloid cells that were known to promote cancer metastasizing by sending a signal from the primary cancer to the other sites in the body where the metastatic spread was going to occur and lowering the immune response. The researchers added a gene to these myeloid cells forcing them to activate and strengthen the immune response. This animal study was published in Cell.
  • Researchers from Rutgers University found that bariatric surgery significantly reduced cancer risk in patients with severe obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The risk reduction was especially prominent in obesity-related cancers, such as colorectal, pancreatic, endometrial, and thyroid cancers, as well as hepatocellular carcinoma and multiple myeloma. The study was published in Gastroenterology.
  • An international group of researchers used Artificial Intelligence (AI) for mining “big data” to gain more insight into the development and prognosis of mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. The initial exploration revealed that mesothelioma development followed specific trajectories, which could also predict the degree of mesothelioma aggressiveness. The study was published in Nature Communications.
  • Researchers from Queen Mary University of London, UK, have developed a machine-learning algorithm that ranked cancer drugs based on their efficacy. Along the lines of personalized medicine, this will enable oncologists to select the best drugs for treating individual cancer patients. The study was published in Nature Communications.
  • Developments in Biomedical Engineering consistently create new opportunities for personalized medicine. Scientists from Japan created special hydrogel that reprogramed and reverted differentiated cancer cells into cancer stem cells within 24 hours. This innovation may help creating new stem cell targeting drugs and personalized therapies in the future. The study was published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

The Role of P53 in Radiosensitivity, Cancer in Whales, and More

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  • The advent of mining large datasets for cancer data made it possible to discern patterns shared by different cancer types. Therefore, providing an opportunity for applying the approaches proved to be successful in one type of cancer to another type based on the shared characteristics. The method is often used in predicting anti-cancer drug response. Researchers from the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center developed a visualization method aimed at improving anti-cancer drug response predictions “by teasing apart and allowing for simultaneous examination of differences across multiple cancer types as well as within individual types”. The method supports an evidence-based approach in making treatment decisions by considering both cancer type and individual variation within that cancer type. This research was published in PLOS Computation Biology.
  • An international team of scientists studied a novel approach to drug discovery, different from the traditional small molecule approach that target only some percentage of proteins active in causing the disease. The new method, aimed at battling the cancer cell drug resistance, “uses a family of human enzymes called ubiquitin ligases that exist in human cells”, which, potentially, can be guided to degrade and kill the disease-causing protein. The study was published in Nature.
  • As cancer radiation therapy efficiency depends on multiple factors, the scientists continue their efforts to understand the biology of tissues sensitivity to radiotherapy. The scientists from the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research focused their research on the role of a well-known tumor suppressor protein p53. It is long established that p53 is linked to the degree of a tissue’s sensitivity to radiation, but the exact nature of this connection was unknown. This new research found that post radiation exposure, tissues sensitive to radiation show persistent p53 signaling while more resistant tissues show just brief p53 activation. The researchers concluded that it is the dynamics of p53 signaling after radiation that is a factor in the tissues’ radiosensitivity. and not the excess of p53 protein in a tissue. The study was published in Nature Communications.
  • Cancer research is conducted not only in humans but in other species. Cancer research in animals may have potential implications for treating human cancers. In the new study, the international team of scientists focused on whales and the reasons for their low cancer rates. The scientists “used DNA sequencing to create a genetic map of whales’ tumor suppressor genes and those of 15 other mammal species”. This study that contributed to the knowledge of genetic mechanisms of tumor suppression in whales was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society.