Focus on Tumour immunology & immunotherapy from Nature Reviews Cancer and Nature Reviews Immunology

The tumour microenvironment is an important aspect of cancer biology that contributes to tumour initiation, tumour progression and responses to therapy. Cells and molecules of the immune system are a fundamental component of the tumour microenvironment. 

Breast Cancer Tweets From AACR 2012 Annual Meeting

AACR 2012 meeting summary - Breast cancer

Postcard From the AACR 2012 Annual Meeting - Part 4

AACR 2012 meeting summary - Part 4
The Grapevine, quotes, and interesting stuff

Postcard From the AACR 2012 Annual Meeting - Part 3

AACR 2012 meeting summary - Part 3.
Personalized medicine, diagnosis, whole genome sequencing, NGS, TCGA project, etc

Postcard From the AACR 2012 Annual Meeting - Part 2

AACR 2012 meeting summary - Part 2

Postcard From the AACR 2012 Annual Meeting - Part 1

Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is ongoing right now in the city of Al Capone.  And 17,000 cancer biologists, oncologists and just about anyone interested in the cancer research have taken over the Chicago downtown which means that there is a tsunami of oncology-related information and much to learn.  


Here is what has bubbled to the top and comes through the much-appreciated efforts of a handful of people who have shared this distilled knowledge via twitter.  These include Pieter Droppert @NT, Naoto T. Ueno @teamoncology, @JNCI_Now,  Scott Merville‏ @smerv ,  David Woessner‏ @pinfoto , Kenna Shaw‏ @wyattsgirl, and others.

EMILIA Study Results: Roche's Trastuzumab Emtansine (T-DM1) Delays Metastatic Breast Cancer Progression

Trastuzumab Emtansine (T-DM1) increases progression-free survival (PFS) in metastatic breast cancer patients compared to patients who received lapatinib (Tykerb; GlaxoSmithKline Plc) and  capecitabine (Xeloda; Roche) combination, Roche made the announcement today in a press release.  The overall surivival (OS) data is not mature yet.

The Link Between Diabetes and Breast Cancer

Both diabetes and cancer have long preoccupied public-health concerns, strained national budgets, and are associated with complications that may affect quality of life. They also share some of the same risk factors, such as age, smoking, weight gain, and a diet poor in fruits and vegetables. The earliest link between diabetes and cancer was alluded to in the 1930s,[1,2] however, convincing epidemiological evidence has emerged only recently proving an association between diabetes and cancer.[3]

Personalized Medicine: Moore's Law Brings $1000 Genomes Within Reach

The promise of personalized medicine has long hinged on faster, cheaper and ubiquitous availability of whole genome sequencing.  

In order to make effective health care decisions to manage or fight cancer using personalized medicine strategy, oncologists ought to be able to follow the chameleonistic genome of cancer cells, and stay one step ahead by targeting strategies cancer cells employ to develop drug resistance, escape and metastasize.

Friday Grand Rounds: Susan Desmond-Hellmann Outlines Her Vision for UCSF and Teaches Us a Thing or Two About Leadership and Goals

Today, we are going to listen to an interview with Susan Desmond-Hellmann.  She is a UCSF-trained oncologist who, after spending 14 years at the helm of Genentech, is now back at UCSF as its first woman chancellor.