Researchers have unravelled much of the basic molecular biology of cancer and, aided by the outpouring of knowledge that the Human Genome Project has yielded over the past ten years, they have come to understand how the disease progresses.
Astra actually launched one of the first cancer drugs to target a molecular defect in tumors, the lung cancer pill, Iressa.
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They will be looking back at the molecular characterisation of the tumours in a number of common cancers stored at the Wales Cancer Bank to discover "molecular fingerprints", known as biomarkers.
This is certainly a major molecular mechanism of how breast cancer metastasizes to the lymph nodes.
Avastin is essentially the same molecular drug but used for cancer.
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Instead of just looking at one gene at a time, it uses an emerging method called systems biology that marries differential equations, computer simulations, and wet-lab biology to try to understand how molecular circuits go awry in cancer.
They also involved evidence at the molecular level that the drugs reduced cancer--something ImClone doesn't really have.
For instance, Gleevec is also effective in a certain form of stomach cancer if a particular molecular marker is present.
The researchers suggest this means the presence of GCC could be a sign of early molecular changes associated with the development of cancer.
In August it entered the hot area of molecular diagnostics, highly sensitive tests to detect infectious diseases and cancer.
In August it moved into the hot area of molecular diagnostics, highly sensitive tests to detect infectious diseases and cancer.
SU-11248 is one of a new spate of cancer pills that work by targeting several of the molecular defects that cause the disease at one time.
In recent experiments carried out by Chiara Conti and other members of Dr Bensimon's team, molecular combing was used to identify a genetic defect responsible for cancer of the kidney, which is notoriously difficult to diagnose in its early (and therefore treatable) stages.
"The vast majority of women are capable of hearing this information and not freaking out, " says the Mayo Clinic's Dr. Rhodes, who is studying a new technology, Molecular Breast Imaging, that uses a tracer substance that makes cancer cells highly visible, and which she says shows promise in detecting cancers in dense breast tissue.
Gerry Thomas, a professor of molecular pathology at Imperial College London accused the WHO of hyping the cancer risk.
Existing cancer-drug therapies kill fast-growing cells, disrupt crucial molecular signals or attack tumor supply lines.
But they say this is an advantage, because it means that cancer cells can be identified without having to pin down the precise molecular markers which make them different from healthy cells.
"We need to focus on creating molecular cocktails that can be administered over a long period of time to help patients control cancer, " says Leung.
The molecular biologist, who is founder and president of NovaRx, mixes four different irradiated lung cancer cell lines with some DNA he has constructed, then gives the mixture several electric charges so they bind together.
Besides Genzyme General, the gene therapy program is involved in Genzyme Molecular Oncology gzmo (nasdaq: gzmo - news - people), which focuses on cancer vaccines, and Genzyme Surgical Products gzsp (nasdaq: gzsp - news - people).
Damage that occurs at the cellular or molecular level can disrupt the body's natural control processes and allow an uncontrolled growth of cells, or cancer.
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