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Cancer’s Secrets Come Into Sharper Focus
NY Times ^ | August 15, 2011 | GEORGE JOHNSON

Posted on 08/15/2011 8:35:22 PM PDT by neverdem

For the last decade cancer research has been guided by a common vision of how a single cell, outcompeting its neighbors, evolves into a malignant tumor.

Through a series of random mutations, genes that encourage cellular division are pushed into overdrive, while genes that normally send growth-restraining signals are taken offline.

With the accelerator floored and the brake lines cut, the cell and its progeny are free to rapidly multiply. More mutations accumulate, allowing the cancer cells to elude other safeguards and to invade neighboring tissue and metastasize.

These basic principles — laid out 11 years ago in a landmark paper, “The Hallmarks of Cancer,” by Douglas Hanahan and Robert A. Weinberg, and revisited in a follow-up article this year — still serve as the reigning paradigm, a kind of Big Bang theory for the field.

But recent discoveries have been complicating the picture with tangles of new detail. Cancer appears to be even more willful and calculating than previously imagined.

Most DNA, for example, was long considered junk — a netherworld of detritus that had no important role in cancer or anything else. Only about 2 percent of the human genome carries the code for making enzymes and other proteins, the cogs and scaffolding of the machinery that a cancer cell turns to its own devices.

These days “junk” DNA is referred to more respectfully as “noncoding” DNA, and researchers are finding clues that “pseudogenes” lurking within this dark region may play a role in cancer.

“We’ve been obsessively focusing our attention on 2 percent of the genome,” said Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi, a professor of medicine and pathology at Harvard Medical School. This spring, at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Orlando, Fla., he described a new “biological dimension” in which signals coming...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Testing
KEYWORDS: cancer; cerna; genes; geneticcode; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; humandna; medicine; pseudogenes; science
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A ceRNA Hypothesis: The Rosetta Stone of a Hidden RNA Language?
1 posted on 08/15/2011 8:35:33 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

Perhaps we should remind ourselves of how many billions go into “shrimp on treadmills,” climate change, innumerable “art-f*rt” waste-ola, etc., when we might better direct our funding to folks with a real education and real accomplishments who actually have a non-zero chance of improving the human condition.

More bucks to cancer research would be nice.

And spend a few extra bucks to shoot those arts idiots who insist on covering bridges, etc with sheets and other examples of their non talent.


2 posted on 08/15/2011 8:41:09 PM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: Da Coyote

Amen! It burns me to no end that a disease that is not in the top 10 killers in this country receives most of the research dollars(AIDS) while 2 diseases that ARE in the top 10 killers, cancer and diabetes, receive a fraction of those dollars


3 posted on 08/15/2011 8:48:16 PM PDT by chris_bdba
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To: neverdem
Most DNA, for example, was long considered junk — a netherworld of detritus that had no important role in cancer or anything else. Only about 2 percent of the human genome carries the code for making enzymes and other proteins, the cogs and scaffolding of the machinery that a cancer cell turns to its own devices.

These days “junk” DNA is referred to more respectfully as “noncoding” DNA, and researchers are finding clues that “pseudogenes” lurking within this dark region may play a role in cancer.

Sounds a little like a certain type of hacking attack.

4 posted on 08/15/2011 8:50:19 PM PDT by Steely Tom (Obama goes on long after the thrill of Obama is gone)
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To: Da Coyote

I just got an invitation for our organization to participate in ‘portraying homelessness in art.’ Haha. We do music, so unfortunately we won’t be able to participate. But if we could, we wouldn’t. Let’s see — Michelangelo vs ‘homelessness’ — which portrays real beauty??


5 posted on 08/15/2011 8:51:08 PM PDT by bboop (Stealth Tutor)
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To: bboop

You may possibly have posted to the wrong thread.


6 posted on 08/15/2011 8:52:49 PM PDT by Steely Tom (Obama goes on long after the thrill of Obama is gone)
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To: metmom
“We’ve been obsessively focusing our attention on 2 percent of the genome,” said Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi, a professor of medicine and pathology at Harvard Medical School.

And why do suppose that is?

7 posted on 08/15/2011 8:54:14 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: chris_bdba
Amen! It burns me to no end that a disease that is not in the top 10 killers in this country receives most of the research dollars(AIDS) while 2 diseases that ARE in the top 10 killers, cancer and diabetes, receive a fraction of those dollars

Also one of the most preventable--just don't do IV drugs and keep your zipper up.

8 posted on 08/15/2011 8:54:27 PM PDT by lightman (Adjutorium nostrum (+) in nomine Domini)
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To: bboop

Oops. Sorry. I see the connection. My bad.


9 posted on 08/15/2011 8:55:06 PM PDT by Steely Tom (Obama goes on long after the thrill of Obama is gone)
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To: lightman
Well, in fairness, solving the many mysteries of AIDS will probably lead to breakthroughs in many other diseases, cancer included. AIDS is a disease of the immune system, and involves -- as I understand it -- information transfer within the immune system and from pathogens into the immune system.

It's a little bit like using the manned space program as a way to funnel lots of money into technologies that could be used by the military for satellite communications, re-entry vehicles, precision guidance, miniaturized electronics, etc.

10 posted on 08/15/2011 8:59:19 PM PDT by Steely Tom (Obama goes on long after the thrill of Obama is gone)
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To: AndrewC
And why do suppose that is?

Because we know that the 2% encodes enzymes and proteins.

Same basic principle as why a drunk looks for his keys under the streetlight.

11 posted on 08/15/2011 9:01:10 PM PDT by null and void (Day 934. The mob is decisive when the law is not.)
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To: Da Coyote
We've been trying to find a cure for cancer for decades now. Imagine how quickly one could be discovered if private individuals funded the research instead of never-ending gubmint money. Same with AIDS, although the main problem their is that it is preventable. There are those unfortunate souls in the medical profession that have been infected through needle sticks. Those are thankfully minimal.
12 posted on 08/15/2011 9:08:10 PM PDT by goodwithagun (My gun has killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.)
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To: null and void
Because we know that the 2% encodes enzymes and proteins.

Same basic principle as why a drunk looks for his keys under the streetlight.

So scientists are like drunks? And obsessive ones at that.

13 posted on 08/15/2011 9:10:29 PM PDT by AndrewC
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To: neverdem

Kinda surprised to see this come out of the Times. It actually carries an air of objectivity.


14 posted on 08/15/2011 9:13:54 PM PDT by Fester Chugabrew (minds change)
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To: Steely Tom

True enough...and let’s not overlook the debilitating auto-immune disorders.


15 posted on 08/15/2011 9:14:44 PM PDT by lightman (Adjutorium nostrum (+) in nomine Domini)
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To: AndrewC

*shrug* They’re both human...


16 posted on 08/15/2011 9:16:16 PM PDT by null and void (Day 934. The mob is decisive when the law is not.)
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To: null and void
*shrug* They’re both human...

Yeah but drunks don't come begging to the government for money. ...

Oops, at least they didn't a while back.

17 posted on 08/15/2011 9:22:43 PM PDT by AndrewC
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18 posted on 08/15/2011 9:24:35 PM PDT by STARWISE (The overlords are in place .. we are a nation under siege .. pray, go Galt & hunker down)
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To: lightman
...and let’s not overlook the debilitating auto-immune disorders.

Sure. Rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, Lupus, MS, diabetes, etc.

19 posted on 08/15/2011 9:27:56 PM PDT by Steely Tom (Obama goes on long after the thrill of Obama is gone)
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To: Fester Chugabrew
Kinda surprised to see this come out of the Times. It actually carries an air of objectivity.

The Times has a very good science section as long as it doesn't involve politics. I try to check them at least once a week. I think this writer is new. I didn't recognize his name. This story is for their Science Tuesday section.

20 posted on 08/15/2011 9:34:52 PM PDT by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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