New Ways to Prevent Cancer
The theme of this year's cancer conference at Karolinska Institutet is what takes place in the tumour microenvironment and how inflammatory processes, RNA and signalling pathways can be influenced in order to cure cancer. Another major theme will be prevention, detection and monitoring.
Journalists are welcome to attend the conference “Frontiers in Cancer Research and Therapy” and interview the scientists.
When: Thursday 6 – Friday 7 March 2014
Where: Nobel Forum, Nobels väg 1, Karolinska Institutet, Campus Solna
This is the twelfth time this cancer conference has been held, and several of the world's leading cancer researchers will be coming to Karolinska Institutet. One of this year's themes is the prevention, detection and monitoring of cancer. Nitzan Rosenfeld, University of Cambridge, UK, will speak about a completely new method for diagnosing and for monitoring the effect of treatment. This method makes it possible to detect tumour DNA in the blood, which has previously been very difficult. This will be of great benefit it can become taken up and use in healthcare.
A new group of drugs, known as ALK inhibitors, are intended for lung cancer patients with a particular mutation. Alice Shaw, Massachusetts General Hospital, USA, will give a presentation describing which patients these are suitable for. In the field of breast cancer, Per Hall from Karolinska Institutet has found a way to predict risk and treatment effectiveness by checking breast density on mammography plates.
The cancer's microenvironment includes not only tumour cells, but also many other types of cell, including immune cells. The theme of inflammation looks at how to initiate the immune system in the microenvironment so that the immune response attacks the cancer cells. Laurence Zitvogel from Université Paris Sud in France has studied those cancer drugs which cause an immune-related cell death and those which do not act via the immune system.
RNA has been the centre of attention in recent years. Previously, researchers believed that RNA was involved only in the production of proteins, but new research shows that it also has other functions. Certain types of RNA, known as non-coding RNA, guide proteins, for example, to their proper place in the cell, which is important in enabling the proteins to carry out their functions. Researchers now believe that RNA could be used as a medicine. It may be that RNA is both easier to produce and easier to control in the body, compared to drugs that focus on proteins. Judy Lieberman from Harvard Medical School in the USA is an expert on this.
The session on signalling pathways will tell us more about one drug that is being developed against a form of leukaemia, AML. Klas Wiman from Karolinska Institutet will explain how this substance can reactivate a tumour suppressor gene, p53, which regulates the survival of cancer cells.
For the full programme, see the attached file.
If you have any questions, please contact:
Associate Professor Andreas Lundqvist
Department of Oncology-Pathology
Tel: +46 (0)8 517 768 59 or +46 (0)73 642 24 12
Email: andreas.lundqvist@ki.se
International Media Relations Officer Sabina Bossi
Tel: +46 (0)8 524 860 66 or +46 (0)70 614 60 66
Email: sabina.bossi@ki.se
Karolinska Institutet is one of the world’s leading medical universities. It accounts for over 40 per cent of the medical academic research conducted in Sweden and offers the country’s broadest range of education in medicine and health sciences. Since 1901 the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has selected the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine.
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