News Archive
The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) is an international non-profit research institute dedicated to improving the understanding and control of cancer. Below are highlights of the Institute’s news.
December 12, 2012
PREDICTORS OF CANCER PROGRESSION COULD IMPROVE PATIENT SELECTION FOR METASTASIS-DIRECTED THERAPY
December 10, 2012, New York, NY – Tumor metastasis, the ability of cancer cells to migrate from their tissue of origin and colonize elsewhere in the body, accounts for over 90% of cancer deaths. When patients die from cancer, it is usually caused by distant metastases established by malignant cells that split off from the primary cancer and began growing in new settings.
November 29, 2012
LUDWIG CENTER SCIENTISTS AT JOHNS HOPKINS PAIR BLOOD TEST AND GENE SEQUENCING TO DETECT CANCER
November 28, 2012, BALTIMORE, MD - Scientists at the Ludwig Center at Johns Hopkins have combined the ability to detect cancer DNA in the blood with genome sequencing technology in a test that could be used to screen for cancers, monitor cancer patients for recurrence and find residual cancer left after surgery.
November 22, 2012
NEW ORAL DRUG OVERCOMES RESISTANCE IN PATIENTS WITH RARE SARCOMA
November 22, 2012, BOSTON - A new targeted drug demonstrated its ability to control metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor, an uncommon and life-threatening form of sarcoma, after the disease had become resistant to all existing therapies, report investigators at the Ludwig Center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who led the worldwide clinical trial
November 16, 2012
DR. RICKARD SANDBERG OF LUDWIG STOCKHOLM RECOGNIZED AS EMBO YOUNG INVESTIGATOR
Please read the story here: Young_Investigators_12_Nov_2012.pdf
November 08, 2012
DISTINGUISHED RESEARCHER, PETER RATCLIFFE, JOINS LUDWIG INSTITUTE
November 8, 2012, New York, NY - Peter J. Ratcliffe, MD, an internationally recognized physician scientist who heads the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine at Oxford University was appointed a Member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.
October 24, 2012
MOUSE MODEL EXPOSES A NEW TYPE OF T CELL TO TARGET MELANOMA
October 24, 2012, New York, NY - Cancers arise in the body all the time. Most are nipped in the bud by the immune response, not least by its T cells, which detect telltale molecular markers—or antigens—on cancer cells and destroy them before they grow into tumors. Cancer cells, for their part, evolve constantly to evade such assassination. Those that succeed become full-blown malignancies. Yet, given the right sort of help, the immune system can destroy even these entrenched tumors.
October 15, 2012
DON W. CLEVELAND OF THE LUDWIG INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RESEARCH ELECTED TO THE INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE
October 15, 2012 - New York, NY - Don W. Cleveland, PhD, Member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and chair of the UC San Diego Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine has been elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Election to the IOM is one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.
October 09, 2012
MEDIMMUNE JOINS FORCES WITH LEADING CANCER ORGANIZATIONS TO ADVANCE NOVEL IMMUNOTHERAPY RESEARCH
October 9, 2012, New York, NY and Gaithersburg, MD -The Cancer Research Institute (CRI), the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and MedImmune, the global biologics arm of AstraZeneca, today announced that they have signed a collaboration agreement to advance the research of immunotherapy in cancer. Specifically, the research will focus on clinical trials to test novel combinations of immunotherapies, including three investigational monoclonal antibodies from MedImmune’s pipeline.
September 25, 2012
LUDWIG SCIENTIST BING REN RECEIVES NIH ENCODE GRANT
September 24, 2012 - New York, NY - Dizzying amounts of data have been produced by the ENCODE project which has been extremely successful in mapping out the functional sequences of the human genome
September 24, 2012
STUDY UNCOVERS MECHANISM BY WHICH TUMOR SUPPRESSOR MIG6 TRIGGERS CELL SUICIDE
September 24, 2012 - New York, NY and Uppsala, Sweden - Death plays a big role in keeping things alive. Consider the tightly orchestrated suicide of cells—a phenomenon essential to everything from shaping an embryo to keeping it free of cancer later in life. When cells refuse to die, and instead multiply uncontrollably, they become what we call tumors. An intricate circuitry of biochemical reactions inside cells coordinates their self-sacrifice. Tracing that circuitry is, naturally, an important part of cancer research.
August 14, 2012
MODIFICATION OF TUMOR SUPPRESSOR AFFECTS SENSITIVITY TO POTENTIAL GLIOBLASTOMA TREATMENT
August 13, 2012 - New York, NY and San Diego, CA - Despite years of research, glioblastoma, the most common and deadly brain cancer in adults, continues to outsmart treatments targeted to inhibit tumor growth.
Biologists and oncologists have long understood that a protein called the epidermal growth factor receptor or EGFR is altered in at least 50 percent of patients with glioblastoma. Yet patients with glioblastoma either have upfront resistance or quickly develop resistance to inhibitors aimed at stopping the protein’s function, suggesting that there is another signalling pathway at play.
August 01, 2012
MOLECULAR SWITCH IDENTIFIED THAT CONTROLS KEY CELLULAR PROCESS AND GIVES INSIGHTS INTO CANCER
August 1, 2012 - New York, NY and Oxford, UK - The body has a built-in system known as autophagy, or ‘self-eating,’ that controls how cells live or die. Deregulation of autophagy is linked to the development of human diseases, including neural degeneration and cancer.
July 31, 2012
IMMUNE RESPONSES CAN BE GENERATED LOCALLY WITHIN HUMAN MELANOMA SKIN METASTASES
July 31, 2012 - PHILADELPHIA, PA - In many types of cancer, activated immune cells infiltrate the tumor and influence clinical outcome. It is not always clear where these cells are activated, but results reported in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, indicate that in a subset of patients with metastatic melanoma, they can be activated in the tumor microenvironment.
July 26, 2012
LUDWIG INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RESEARCH ISSUES STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR RECEPTA BIOPHARMA
$14.8 Million in Financing from BNDES and Orphan Drug Designation for Lead Cancer Therapeutic
July 25, 2012 - New York, NY - The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Ltd (LICR) commends Recepta Biopharma S.A. on recent milestones that will help to advance the development of new cancer therapeutics for patients.
July 22, 2012
NEW GENOMIC SEQUENCING METHOD ENABLES “SMARTER” ANAYSIS OF INDIVIDUAL CELLS
Applications include studying single cells that form malignant tumors
July 22, 2012, New York, NY and Stockholm, Sweden – Only by viewing a Seurat painting at close range can you appreciate the hidden complexities of pointillism – small, distinct dots of pure color applied in patterns to form an image from a distance. Similarly, biologists and geneticists have long sought to analyze profiles of genes at the single cell level but technology limitations have only allowed a view from afar until now.
July 03, 2012
LUDWIG INSTITUTE JOINS NEW STATE-OF-THE-ART COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER IN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
July 3, 2012 - On June 22, the first stage of a new Comprehensive Cancer Centre known as the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre (ONJCWC), opened in Melbourne, Australia, providing the Melbourne-Austin Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research with state-of-the-art laboratory facilities and expanded research capacity in the country. The new center will provide cancer care, prevention and wellness programs, along with the Ludwig research laboratories.
LUDWIG WELCOMES THE APPOINTMENT OF GEORGE COUKOS TO NEW EUROPEAN CANCER CENTER OF EXCELLENCE
Renowned Oncologist to Head Ludwig Center at the University of Lausanne and Lausanne University Hospital
July 3, 2012 - New York, NY – A prominent oncologist in ovarian cancer research and treatment, George Coukos, M.D., Ph.D., joins the Ludwig Center in Lausanne, Switzerland as the new Director. Coukos is a pioneer in using cutting-edge advances in immunotherapy to help patients living with cancer.
July 01, 2012
BEYOND BASE-PAIRS: MAPPING THE FUNCTIONAL GENOME
Regulatory Sequences of Mouse Genome Sequenced for First Time
July 1, 2012 - New York, NY and San Diego, Calif. - Popularly dubbed “the book of life,” the human genome is extraordinarily difficult to read. But without full knowledge of its grammar and syntax, the genome’s 2.9 billion base-pairs of adenine and thymine, cytosine and guanine provide limited insights into humanity’s underlying genetics.
June 22, 2012
PROPOSED DRUG MAY REVERSE HUNTINGTON’S DISEASE SYMPTOMS
Single treatment produces long-term improvement in animal models
June 20, 2012 - San Diego - With a single drug treatment, researchers at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine can silence the mutated gene responsible for Huntington’s disease, slowing and partially reversing progression of the fatal neurodegenerative disorder in animal models.
June 01, 2012
THE LUDWIG INSTITUTE HIGHLIGHTS A DOZEN PLUS ABSTRACTS AT ASCO
June 1, 2012 - New York, NY – Scientists from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) will share research findings from more than a dozen studies both as posters and as part of the published proceedings during the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) taking place June 1-5 at the McCormick Place in Chicago, Ill.
May 17, 2012
NEW TECHNIQUE REVEALS UNSEEN INFORMATION IN DNA CODE
May 17, 2012 - New York, NY, Chicago, IL and Atlanta, GA - Imagine reading an entire book, but then realizing that your glasses did not allow you to distinguish “g” from “q.” What details did you miss?
Geneticists faced a similar problem with the recent discovery of a “sixth nucleotide” in the DNA alphabet. Two modifications of cytosine, one of the four bases that make up DNA, look almost the same but mean different things. But scientists lacked a way of reading DNA, letter by letter, and detecting precisely where these modifications are found in particular tissues or cell types.
May 03, 2012
THE LUDWIG INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RESEARCH ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF ITEOS THERAPEUTICS SA
New Company to Focus on Developing Novel Immunotherapy Compounds for Cancer Treatment
May 3, 2012 - NEW YORK, NY – The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) announced today the launch of a private biotechnology enterprise, iTeos Therapeutics SA, to develop a novel pre-clinical pipeline of immunomodulators to stimulate the immune system’s ability to attack cancer. Founded by LICR with the de Duve Institute at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), iTeos is led by a team experienced in tumor immunology, immunotherapy, drug discovery, business development and entrepreneurship. iTeos is the ninth new company formed based on innovative cancer research discoveries licensed from LICR.
April 16, 2012
HOW USEFUL IS WHOLE GENOME SEQUENCING TO PREDICT DISEASE?
Few diseases have strong enough genetic components to make sequencing a solid way to assess individual risk
By Katherine Harmon | Monday, April 2, 2012
A $1,000 genome sequence is close to being available. What will your sequence tell you about your actual risk for certain diseases?
Many companies advertise a laundry list of disease risks associated with your genes. But your genome is unlikely to reveal whether or not you will actually get one of these conditions, according to a study published online April 2 in Science Translational Medicine.
April 13, 2012
NEW LUDWIG PARTNERSHIP IN BRAZIL
On April 13 and 14, 2012, the Hospital Sírio-Libanês (HSL) will host Intersections - 1st International Cooperative Cancer Symposium in Sao Paulo to celebrate a new strategic partnership among with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR), Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and HSL. The two-day event will bring together leading oncologists from Brazil and around the world.
April 11, 2012
POWERFUL SEQUENCING TECHNOLOGY DECODES DNA FOLDING PATTERN
Findings provide tools for better understanding of the human genome
April 11, 2012 - New York, NY - Chromosomes are strands of DNA that contain the blueprint of all living organisms. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes that instruct how genes are regulated during development of the human body. While scientists have developed an understanding of the one-dimensional structure of DNA, until today, little was known about how different parts of DNA are folded next to each other inside the nucleus.
ADD, SUBTRACT, DIVIDE EQUALS LIFE
Blog posting from UCSD based on a Ludwig study published in Nature
April 8, 2012 - San Diego - Centromeres are regions of DNA and proteins on each chromosome that both link together sister chromatids and ensure accurate chromosome segregation and distribution during cell division or mitosis. When centromeres don’t work right, the result can be catastrophic. Indeed, aberrant division and chromosomal instability are hallmarks of cancer cells, especially the most aggressive types.
April 03, 2012
MARCH 2012 - Q & A WITH LICR SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR DR. ANDREW SIMPSON IN INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION
Underpinned by technological advances, cancer research has undergone some exiting developments in recent years. While Dr. Simpson is enthusiastic about such progress, he is keen to point out that much more needs to be done.
Click on the link below
April 02, 2012
WHOLE GENOME SEQUENCING NOT INFORMATIVE FOR ALL, JOHNS HOPKINS LUDWIG CENTER STUDY SHOWS
April 2, 2012 - Chicago - With sharp declines in the cost of whole genome sequencing, the day of accurately deciphering disease risk based on an individual’s genome may seem at hand. But a study involving data of thousands of identical twins by Johns Hopkins investigators finds that genomic fortune-telling fails to provide informative guidance to most people about their risk for most common diseases, and warns against complacency born of negative genome test results.
March 31, 2012
LUDWIG ABSTRACTS AT 2012 AACR MEETING
March 31, 2012 - New York, NY - The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research announced today that scientists from its Institute will present seven abstracts at the America Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2012 taking place Saturday, March 31 to Wednesday, April 4, 2012, at McCormick Place in Chicago, Ill.
March 27, 2012
SINGLE ANTIBODY SHRINKS VARIETY OF HUMAN TUMORS IN MICE, STUDY BY LUDWIG SCIENTIST SHOWS
March 26, 2012 - Stanford, CA - Human tumors transplanted into laboratory mice disappeared or shrank when scientists treated the animals with a single antibody, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine. The antibody works by masking a protein flag on cancer cells that protects them from macrophages and other cells in the immune system. The scientists achieved the findings with human breast, ovarian, colon, bladder, brain, liver and prostate cancer samples.
March 23, 2012
LUDWIG CENTER DIRECTOR, BERT VOGELSTEIN, HONORED BY AACR
The American Association for Cancer Research will award LICR Center Director, Bert Vogelstein, M.D., with the Eighth Annual AACR-Irving Weinstein Foundation Distinguished Lectureship at the AACR Annual Meeting 2012, held in Chicago from March 31 - April 4.
March 09, 2012
WOMAN’S RECOVERY FROM ADVANCED MELANOMA COULD HELP GUIDE RESEARCH
March 7, 2012 - Combining the immune-based drug ipilimumab with targeted radiation therapy improved one advanced melanoma patient’s ability to fight the deadly skin cancer, a new study says.
The treatment triggered a strong immune response, which resulted in shrinkage of both the tumor treated with radiation as well as tumors located at distant locations in the body, according to the study, published in the March 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
March 07, 2012
NEJM STUDY SHOWS COMBINATION TREATMENT IMPROVES MELANOMA PATIENT OUTCOME
March 8, 2012 - New York, NY - Research published today in the New England Journal of Medicine by scientists at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) showed that combining targeted radiation therapy with immunotherapy (ipilimumab), fostered a strong immune response and a favorable clinical outcome in a patient with melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer. The size of both the tumor that was treated with radiation and distant tumors in the patient were reduced. This study is a rare example of a documented case of an immune response, known as the abscopal effect, in cancer treatment.
March 06, 2012
LUDWIG INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RESEARCH’S DISCOVERY LEADS TO AUSTRALIAN PATIENT TRIALS
Melbourne, Australia, February 21, 2012 - The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) today announced that the first-in-patient trial with the monoclonal antibody ABT-806i is underway at Austin Health in Melbourne. ABT-806i was created from the monoclonal antibody mAb806, which was generated and characterised by LICR, and later successfully licensed to Abbott through Life Science Pharmaceuticals (LSP).
February 16, 2012
EXPRESS YOURSELF: HOW ZYGOTES SORT OUT IMPRINTED GENES
February 16, 2012 - San Diego, CA - Writing in the February 17, 2012 issue of the journal Cell, researchers at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the Toronto Western Research Institute peel away some of the enduring mystery of how zygotes or fertilized eggs determine which copies of parental genes will be used or ignored.
February 13, 2012
ANTIBODIES SUCCESSFULLY TARGET INTRACELLULAR ANTIGENS
Pre-clinical Study Shows Delay in Tumor Growth and Prolonged Survival Time
February 13, 2012 - New York, NY - An international team of scientists in Japan, Switzerland, and the United States has confirmed that combining chemotherapy and immunotherapy in cancer treatment enhances the immune system’s ability to find and eliminate cancer cells, even when the cancer-associated proteins targeted by the immune system are hidden behind the cancer cell membrane. In a study published in Cancer Research by Noguchi et al., the scientists show that antibodies, which have been successful in treating certain types of cancers, can effectively reach elusive intracellular targets, delaying tumor growth and prolonging survival when combined with chemotherapy.
January 30, 2012
NEW TARGET FOR CANCER THERAPY IDENTIFIED, PRECLINICAL STUDY SHOWS
TDO Enzyme Enables Tumors to Avoid Detection and Rejection by the Immune System
January 30, 2012 - New York, NY - Scientists from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) in Brussels identified a new target for cancer therapy, an enzyme which prevents the immune system from recognizing and destroying certain types of tumors. Called tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase or TDO, the enzyme works by depriving immune cells of tryptophan, an amino acid essential to their activity. TDO is produced by a significant number of human tumors. Scientists also show that blocking TDO activity with a novel TDO inhibitor promotes tumor rejection in mice. The study findings were published online today in the January 30 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
January 18, 2012
STANFORD COMPUTER ALGORITHM USED TO IDENTIFY BLADDER CANCER MARKER
January 17, 2012, STANFORD, Calif. - Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have used an innovative mathematical technique to find markers that effectively predict how deadly a cancer will be. The discovery, which in this case concerned bladder cancer, could lead to faster, less expensive and more accurate analysis of cancer risk and better treatment of the disease.
January 12, 2012
ANTI-CANCER VACCINE USING T. CRUZI PARASITE PREVENTS CANCER IN PRE-CLINICAL STUDIES
January 10, 2012
LICR PARTNER CIRCADIAN COMMENCES PHASE 1 TRIAL IN CANCER PATIENTS
January 8, 2012 - Melbourne, Australia - Circadian Technologies Limited (ASX:CIR, OTCQX:CKDXY) announced today that it has commenced the first Phase 1 clinical trial of its fully human monoclonal antibody against VEGF-C, VGX-100, at a leading US-based cancer treatment centre