New Molecule may Help Reduce and/or Slow Head and Neck Cancer Cell Growth

 First of all, thanks for allowing me to take a few days off last week.  I hope you enjoyed the post on my Roland adventure thus far...

Now we are on to other fascinating and potentially life changing tech topics.  I'm leading off this week with a post on  newly discovered molecule that might have incredible implications for oral and pharyngeal cancers.

It seems that researchers at the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Dentistry have managed to isolate a molecule that might prevent the growth and spread of squamous cell carcinomas.  These cancers can be horribly devastating to the patient... often the surgery to remove the cancer results in visible scars and/or deformities for those unfortunate enough to be victims.  

Squamous Cell carcinomas can be incredibly invasive and grow incredibly fast.  This means that often by the time they are detected, the tumor is large and may well have undermined soft tissue or bone.  This means more aggressive and invasive surgeries to remove them which can be devastating for the patient.  By slowing or stalling the growth of these cancer cells, it is hoped to allow for more conservative treatment.

It seems that these cancers, especially along their outside, have a gene called CD276 that keeps the body from fighting it with T cells.  The newly discovered molecule blocks the CD276 gene and stops or greatly slows the growth of the cancer cells.

This could be a MAJOR breakthrough for the treatment of cancers in the head and neck.

For the full scientific paper, follow this link.