UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, March 1. 1996
7A
Cancer research gives hope
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Scientists used a single dose of a gene to wipe out human breast cancer tumors in some mice and extend the lives of others with the disease.
Dawn Willis, director of research communication at the American Cancer Society, said that it was a major step forward toward developing a new treatment for breast cancer.
The treatment, which involves injecting a normal version of the gene BRCA1, eliminated tumors in two of the five mice tested. But scientists don't know if the mice were cured or still had undetectable traces of cancer.
BRCA1, when defective, causes an inherited susceptibility to breast and ovarian cancers. The new work gives evidence that the normal BRCA1 lets cells make a protein that suppresses breast and ovarian cancer.
Scientists also found evidence
that cells secrete this protein.
If this is true, although previous research suggests otherwise, scientists might be able to develop drugs that mimic its suppressing ability and use them to treat breast and ovarian cancer, said researcher Jeffrey Holt, M.D.
"I'm excited about the possibility," he said.
Holt presented the study in the March issue of the Nature Genetics journal with Roy Jensen, M.D. and others at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn., Mary-Claire King of the University of Washington in Seattle.
King said a BRCAI-based treatment would not replace surgery but would supplement it.
Barbara Weber, director of the breast cancer program at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, said the results made her optimistic about developing a BRCA1-based drug or gene-implantation technique that could fight cancer.
But she said that much more work had to be done before either approach could be tested in people.
For the research, scientists implanted mice with human breast cancer cells taken from a noninherited case of the disease. As in most such cases, the cells produced abnormally low levels of BRCA1 protein.
Two weeks later, after the cells had become tumors, five mice were injected with a virus to ferry copies of a normal BRCA1 gene into the cancer. Five other mice got a virus de-signed to plant damaged cop-ies of the gene.
The mice that got the damaged copy died of the cancer less than two weeks after the treatment, with an average survival of about nine days.
But those that got the normal gene lived 15 to 41 days,with an average of 24 days.
Two animals that got the normal gene died of other causes and showed no trace of tumor at death.
The three other animals showed tumors that were much smaller than those found in the mice receiving the damaged gene.
Only one of the three probably died of the cancer. The reasons for the other deaths are not known.
But BRCA1 did not keep colon and lung cancer cells from forming colonies.
Researchers found that breast and ovarian cancer cells implanted with a normal BRCA1 gene in laboratory dishes did not grow into colonies as they otherwise would.
Holt said the findings fit with the idea that BRCA1 protein suppressed cancer by being secreted and then acting on cells from the outside, which suggested a possibility for drug development.
External substances act on cells by attaching themselves to specific receptors on cell surfaces, and may be receptors for the protein are found only on breast and ovarian cancer cells, he said.
Kansan Classified Ads Get Results!
842-0000
Build a Beautiful Body
50% OFF ENROLLMENT
V. I.P. Membership $20 per month for students, faculty and KU staff
Learn to Fly
Lawrence Air Services
Instruction•Charter
Service•Rental
BODY BOUTIQUE The Women's Fitness Facility
The Women's Fitness Facility
749-2424
925 Iowa
Offer expires March 12, 1996
Buy 10 tans Get 10 tans FREE for $30
HIV-1e has been detected in only a few Americans, but Essex said if it spreads here, heterosexual women might be at even greater risk.
$64 Now until the end of the semester
Tan & Exercise until midnight March 11-14, 18-20
the
The HIV-1e, from heterosexual patients in Thailand, grew much faster and to much higher levels in Langerham's cells than the U.S. strain did, he found.
Fauci, the government's top AIDS expert, said that was probably an extreme scenario, noting there are many differences between Thai and U.S. women that also influence HIV's heterosexual spread.
Interested in a unique living arrangement?
Essex decided to see if the two subtypes equally penetrate different immune cells, known as Langerhans' cells, that line the vagina.
HILLEL HOUSE
There are different subtypes of HIV. One version, HIV-1e, is most common in parts of Asia and Africa, where 90 percent of HIV cases are attributed to heterosexual contact, Harvard University's Max Essex said.
may be right for you!
Call 864-3948 or stop by the Hillel Office in the Organizations and Activities Center in the Kansas Union for an application. The deadline to apply is MARCH 8, so act quickly!
Located at 940 Mississippi, the Hillel House is close to campus affordable and a great opportunity for Jewish living.
But the study helps researchers understand yet another mechanism the fatal virus uses to get inside the body, Fauci said.
HIV type worse for U.S. women
WASHINGTON — Researchers have discovered how a strain of the AIDS virus penetrates a woman's cervix, possibly helping explain why the disease spreads faster in certain women abroad than it has yet here.
Government figures show HIV infections already are growing fastest among women.
The Associated Press.
The discovery, published today in the journal Science, doesn't mean U.S. women have any less to fear from HIV, said Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health.
Here, HIV first spread through homosexual contact and drug use, and heterosexually transmitted cases now account for some 10 percent of infections, he said. The most common U.S. subtype is HIV-1b.
...
Barefoot
Jewana
$1 DRINK SPECIALS
Hair Experts Design Team
9th & Iowa • Hillcrest Shopping Center
The perfect look for you, the perfect price $5 off any service
(does not include children's haircuts)
Holiday Pizza 5th & Iowa 841-6886
For more information call 1.800.231.2222.
Don't let this spring leave you broke and left out of all the fun. Go anywhere Greyhound $ goes for a maximum round trip fare of $129. For a limited time only, from February 26th until April 15th, students who show a valid student ID can travel to any of our 2,400 destinations. So this spring, take your break on Greyhound.
Go Greyhound.
and leave the driving to us.
http://www.greyhound.com
©1996 Greyhound Lines, Inc. Some restrictions and limitations may apply. Price subject to change without notice.
Easter blackout applies from April 6th - April 8th
February 29-March 2,1996 Concerts nightly at 7:30 p.m. Lied Center
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 29
KU JAZZ FESTIVAL
Vocal Jazz Night Vocalists Kevin Mahogany and Lisa Henry with the KU Jazz Singers and KU Jazz Ensemble I
FRIDAY, MARCH 1
Combo Night
Bela Fleck and the
Flecktones
KU Jazz Combo I
SATURDAY, MARCH 2
Big Band Night Toshiko Akiyoshi with KU Jazz Ensemble I Washburn University Jazz Ensemble I
Daily events include over 70 outstanding high school and college groups from throughout the Midwest performing in an educational setting. For a daily schedule, call 864.3436. Reserved seat tickets for the nightly concerts are available through the KU box offices: Murphy Hall, 913.864.3982; Lied Center, 913.864.ARTS; SUA Office, 913.864.3477; VISA/MasterCard are available for phone orders.
Tickets are also available through all Ticketmaster Ticket Centers or call 913.234.4545 or 816.931.3330: In Lawrence, Ticketmaster outlets are at HyVee, Music for Less, and Streetside Records.
R.T. Enterprises
SCHOLARSHIP
REFERRELS
MONEY FOR COLLEGE
P.O. Box 527 Lawrence, Ks. 66044
voice mail 843-0043 #835
Planned Parenthood.
have questions...
If you
Planned Parenthood. We can answer your questions about birth control, STDs, pregnancy, AIDS.
1-800-230-PLAN
1420 Kasold Drive, Lawrence, KS
14
A