Category Archives: In the News

Luminescent Chemotherapy-Filled Beads, Prostate Cancer and More…

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The latest in the world of cancer research:

  • An innovative cancer treatment made of luminescent chemotherapy-filled beads injected into tumors through the wrist is now available for patients with inoperable and difficult-to-treat liver cancer. Here’s a video of Dr. Edward Kim from Mount Sinai Hospital performing this cancer procedure:
  • A team of scientists led by Dr. Peter S. Nelson at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center conducted a genomic analysis and found that prostate cancer metastases varied greatly between men. The study also found that a single metastasis within one individual may provide molecular information to help guide therapy. Read more on the findings in Nature Medicine.
  • Researchers at the University of Vienna have discovered why small cell lung cancer is chemoresistant. The resistance to chemo and radiation is due to the circulating tumor cells forming clusters. Completely new therapeutic approaches must therefore be developed to prevent the formation of these cancer clusters or to break them up. Read more on the discovery in Cell Adhesion and Migration.
  • Landmark research out of the University of South Wales in Australia has led to the development of a technique whereby stem cell therapies may be capable of regenerating damaged human tissue. Their findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

Good Things from the Internet

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In the spirit of fresh beginnings, this edition of blog buzz is dedicated to good things that have come up recently in a fairly grim month of news;

  • Twitter has added the ability to include descriptions of images (up to 420 characters!) to enrich content for the visually impaired. More here from Gary Price on InfoDocket.
  • From Science Magazine, a brief item on a study indicating a particular species of woodpecker may have a symbiotic relationship with wood decaying fungi which help them hollow out shelter from living trees.
  • A children’s book from the 17th century (an educational primer of sorts) was recently found in a University Archive in Britain. More on this story here.
  • A nice April Fool’s gag from the Indiana University Lilly Library’s Twiter Feed, here.

Thomson Reuters 2015 World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds Includes Fourteen MSK Researchers

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Thomson Reuters announced their 2015 list of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds. How they create this list is based on several factors summarized below:

“The some 3,000 highly cited researchers listed in this report were selected by analyzing citation data over a recent 11-year period (2003-2013) and identifying those who published the greatest number of highly cited papers. We also identified hot researchers, authors of papers published in a recent two-year period (2013-2014) that were cited immediately after publication at extraordinarily high levels. Highly cited papers rank in the top 1% and hot papers rank in the top 0.1% of the citation distributions of comparable papers, those matched for field and age.”

Thomson Reuters’ list includes the following fourteen MSK researchers:

  • Jose Baselga, MD, PhD – Medical Oncologist, Physician-in-Chief and Chief Medical Officer, Memorial Hospital
  • Frederic Geissmann, MD, PhD – Researcher, William E. Snee Chair of Immunology, Sloan Kettering Institute
  • Clifford A Hudis, MD – Medical Oncologist, Vice President for Government Relations and Chief Advocacy Officer; Chief, Breast Medicine Service
  • Mark G Kris, MD – Medical Oncologist, William and Joy Ruane Chair in Thoracic Oncology
  • Marc Ladanyi, MD – Molecular Geneticist, Chief, Molecular Diagnostics Service; William J. Ruane Chair in Molecular Oncology
  • Joan Massagué, PhD – Researcher, Director, Sloan Kettering Institute
  • Gregory J Riely, MD, PhD – Medical Oncologist, Vice Chair, Clinical Trials Office, Department of Medicine
  • Alexander Y Rudensky, PhD – Chair, Immunology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute; Director, Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, Memorial Sloan Kettering
  • Chris Sander, PhD – Program Chairman and Director, Computational Biology Center, Sloan Kettering Institute
  • Charles L Sawyers, MD – Internist and Hematologic Oncologist, Chair, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program; Marie-Josee and Henry R. Kravis Chair
  • Howard I Scher, MD – Medical Oncologist, Chief, Genitourinary Oncology Service; D. Wayne Calloway Chair in Urologic Oncology
  • Martin S Tallman, MD – Hematologic Oncologist, Chief, Leukemia Service
  • Craig B Thompson, MD – President and CEO, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
  • William D Travis, MD – Pathologist, Director, Thoracic Pathology