The Tumor from Josh's Testicle

10/12/2018

Everything reminds me..

08/16/2017

7 years cancer free tomorrow.

01/10/2016

11/19/2015

5 years cancer-free. On Monday I'll get my final MRI. Only 2% chance of recurrence.

11/08/2015

By Scott Ippolito

10/05/2014

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5923028?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000022

02/04/2014

Today is World Cancer Day. Thanks Obama!

07/25/2013

(CNN) - Last week, former President George H. W. Bush had a full head of hair when he gave President Barack Obama a pair of socks. Today, it's gone, shaved to the scalp in solidarity with a young cancer patient.

07/14/2013

CHICAGO—Frustrated executives from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association announced Friday that they are getting “completely fu**ed over” by Allentown, PA resident Matthew Greison, a 57-year-old man suffering from an advanced form of Hod...

07/11/2013

Intriguing new research suggests having cancer may offer some protection from Alzheimer's.

06/19/2013

The findings could eventually lead to new cancer treatments in people, said study authors Andrei Seluanov and Vera Gorbunova.

Naked mole rats are small, hairless, subterranean rodents that have never been known to get cancer, despite having a 30-year lifespan. The research group led by Seluanov and Gorbunova discovered that these rodents are protected from cancer because their tissues are very rich with high molecular weight hyaluronan (HMW-HA).

The biologists' focus on HMW-HA began after they noticed that a gooey substance in the naked mole rat culture was clogging the vacuum pumps and tubing. They also observed that, unlike the naked mole rat culture, other media containing cells from humans, mice, and guinea pigs were not viscous.
"We needed to understand what the goo was," said Seluanov.

Gorbunova and Seluanov identified the substance as HMW-HA, which caused them to test its possible role in naked mole rat's cancer resistance.

Seluanov and Gorbunova then showed that when HMW-HA was removed, the cells became susceptible to tumors, confirming that the chemical did play a role in making naked mole rats cancer-proof. The Rochester team also identified the gene, named HAS2, responsible for making HMW-HA in the naked mole rat. Surprisingly, the naked mole rat gene was different from HAS2 in all other animals. In addition the naked mole rats were very slow at recycling HMW-HA, which contributed to the accumulation of the chemical in the animals' tissues.

The next step will be to test the effectiveness of HMW-HA in mice. If that test goes well, Seluanov and Gorbunova hope to try the chemical on human cells. "There's indirect evidence that HMW-HA would work in people," said Seluanov. "It's used in anti-wrinkle injections and to relieve pain from arthritis in knee joints, without any adverse effects. Our hope is that it can also induce an anti-cancer response."

Future research from the Gorbunova and Seluanov labs will focus on determining whether the HMW-HA from naked mole rats may have clinical value for either treating or preventing cancer in humans.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-06-chemical-cancer-resistance-naked-mole.html