Many patients with metastatic bladder cancer have inactivated SMARCB1, which is normally involved in DNA remodeling. The loss of SMARCB1 activates the STAT3 inflammation pathway and is a well-known biomarker of aggressive renal medullary carcinoma, suggesting that these events drive tumor growth and progression. To provide further insights, researchers led by Pavlos Msaouel, M.D., Ph.D., used lab models of bladder cancer without SMARCB1. SMARCB1 deficiency led to increased STAT3 activation as well as increased tumor growth and metastasis. The...

Memorial Hermann Health System and Aldine ISD recently announced an unprecedented partnership to design a career-technical education (CTE) high school that will help prepare students for well-paying careers in health care and address local education and health care talent needs.   The Health Education and Learning High School, or HEAL High School, will share a campus with Nimitz High School and will fully integrate health care career knowledge and job-training with a high-quality, well-rounded high school experience...

Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported promising results in a Phase I/II trial of 37 patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies who were treated with cord blood-derived chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) natural killer (NK) cell therapy targeting CD19.   The findings reveal an overall response (OR) rate of 48.6% at 100 days post treatment, with one-year progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates of 32% & 68%, respectively. The trial reported an...

Renowned Houston philanthropist Elaine Finger has made a generous $2 million gift for an endowed chair to advance education, research and innovation in business and health care at the University of Houston. The Elaine W. Finger Endowed Chair in Health Care Business Innovation will be a joint appointment in the C.T. Bauer College of Business and the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine, catalyzing groundbreaking advancements and further propelling the university into a leading...

Interleukin-17 (IL-17) signaling in the intestines maintains a healthy balance of gut microbes but also has been linked to several types of diseases, including cancer. However, IL-17 inhibition can interfere with the body’s ability to fight tumors, highlighting a need for further insights into this potential therapeutic target. In this study, researchers including Florencia McAllister, M.D., and Vidhi Chandra, Ph.D., found that deleting the IL-17 receptor specifically in the gut of lab models led to an imbalance of gut bacteria, or dysbiosis,...

The Normal Risk Ovarian Screening Study (NROSS) is a two-phase screening strategy for postmenopausal women who are considered at normal risk for ovarian cancer. The first phase uses a cancer antigen 125 (CA125) blood test and a Risk of Ovarian Cancer Algorithm (ROCA) to determine whether the second phase, a transvaginal sonography, is needed. Patients with an abnormal transvaginal sonogram would then be referred for surgery. A new analysis published by Robert Bast, M.D., Karen Lu, M.D., and...

Inherited mutations in BRCA genes cause defects in DNA damage repair pathways. Targeted therapy with PARP inhibitors – which block a DNA repair protein – is known to extend progression-free survival in patients with BRCA-mutant cancers, but many patients eventually develop resistance and have poor overall survival, underscoring a need to identify combination strategies that improve outcomes. Protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs), which regulate gene transcription and RNA splicing, are involved in many cancer-associated processes, leading Nidhi Sahni, Ph.D., and colleagues to...

Mutations in DNA repair genes are known drivers of hereditary cancers. However, only a small fraction of patients with hereditary breast or ovarian cancers has BRCA1/2 mutations, which are involved in homologous recombination (HR) DNA repair. Researchers led by Nidhi Sahni, Ph.D., calculated scores across tumors from The Cancer Genome Atlas to comprehensively identify tumors that were either positive or negative for HR defects. Around 75% of tumors with a positive HR score did not have defects in known HR genes,...

The immune checkpoint inhibitor avelumab has been approved for multiple cancer types, but has thus far had mixed results in gynecologic patients. A study led by Aung Naing, M.D., was designed to evaluate whether combining avelumab with a 4-1BB agonist (utomilumab), an OX40 agonist (PF-04518600) or radiotherapy would increase efficacy. Although the combinations proved to be safe, they did not produce significant responses in this heavily pretreated population. In 35 patients evaluated, the overall response rate (ORR) was 2.9% and...