Cancer
April 25, 2022
By Susan Murphy 
National DNA Day on Monday, April 25, marks the discovery of DNA’s double helix in 1953 and the Human Genome Project’s completion in 2003. For the first time, a team of scientists led by the National Institutes of Health has finished sequencing an entire human genome — all of the roughly 3 billion bases of […]
Tags: Dr. Konstantinos Lazaridis, Genetic Sequencing, Genetic Testing, Genetics, genome, Human Genome Project
April 13, 2022
Mayo Clinic researchers load CAR-T cells with oncolytic virus to treat solid cancer tumors
By Susan Murphy
Researchers at Mayo Clinic’s Center for Individualized Medicine have devised an immunotherapy technique that combines chimeric antigen receptor-T cell therapy, or CAR-T cell therapy, with a cancer-killing virus to more effectively target and treat solid cancer tumors.
Tags: #CAR T-cell therapy, center for individualized medicine, Dr. Richard Vile, genomics, individualized medicine, medical research, oncolytic virus, personalized medicine
March 31, 2022
Mayo Clinic patient grateful after genetic test leads to unexpected, early detection of colon cancer
By Susan Murphy
Alejandro Mirazo, 56, never imagined his genetic test results would reveal a hereditary link to cancer, or that his findings would potentially save his life. He had participated in a preemptive DNA research sequencing study for Mayo Clinic’s Center for Individualized Medicine in fall 2021 solely to contribute to medical research. As a Mexican American, he also wanted to add diversity to Mayo Clinic’s genomic dataset.
Tags: center for individualized medicine, DNA Testing, gene sequencing, Genetics, genomic medicine, medical research, personalized medicine
March 17, 2022
Mayo Clinic study reports genomic data disparities among racial groups
Mayo Clinic researchers studied the differences in genomic data quality among racial groups in one of the largest and most widely used cancer research datasets, The Cancer Genome Atlas. “We found lower quality genomic sequencing data in self-reported Black patients and patients of African ancestry,” says Yan Asmann., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic bioinformatician and senior […]
Tags: Cancer Research, center for individualized medicine, DNA Testing, mayo clinic
February 3, 2022
Lung cancer: It is about more than smoking
By Susan Murphy
By Sharon Theimer World Cancer Day is February 4 and that makes this the ideal time to talk about lung cancer and smoking. Internationally, lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer deaths and the World Health Organization estimates that 90% of cases could be prevented by eliminating tobacco use. People who smoke are at the greatest risk. Smokeless tobacco is also associated […]
January 12, 2022
By Susan Murphy
Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine researchers may have discovered a genomic signature to predict which patients with mesothelioma could benefit from immunotherapy.
Tags: #mesothelioma, cancer, Cancer Research, center for individualized medicine, Genetics, genomics
December 15, 2021
Mayo Clinic research finds immune system responds to mRNA treatment for cancer
Adding messenger RNA, or mRNA therapy improves the response to cancer immunotherapy in patients who weren’t responding to the treatment, Mayo Clinic research shows. Immunotherapy uses the body’s immune system to prevent, control and eliminate cancer. The study is published in Cancer Immunology Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Tags: cancer immunotherapy, Dr. Haidong Dong, gene therapy, genetic diseases, genomics, mayo clinic, Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, mRNA therapy, Precision Medicine, Research
November 22, 2021
Gather your family health history this Thanksgiving; it could save your life
By Susan Murphy
Thanksgiving Day marks Family Health History Day, an annual national public health campaign to encourage people to better understand what health characteristics run in their families. Has your mother, sister or grandmother had breast or ovarian cancer? Has your father had prostate cancer? Is there a history of colon cancer, diabetes or high cholesterol in your family? If so, you also could be at risk. John Presutti, D.O., a Mayo Clinic family medicine physician, says don’t just talk about your family health history. Act on it. It could save your life.
November 17, 2021
By Susan Murphy
In the study, which was published in Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology, nearly 1 in 6 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer were found to have an inherited cancer-related gene mutation that likely predisposed them to the disease. The most common genetic mutation was in the BRCA2 gene, known as a “breast cancer gene.”
October 18, 2021
By Susan Murphy
When Michelle Ewy, 38, received an opportunity at Mayo Clinic to get her DNA tested for genetic mutations related to breast and ovarian cancers, and other cancers and diseases, she jumped at the chance. “I wasn’t thinking much of what the outcome would be because there has not been a prevalence of breast or ovarian […]
Tags: BRCA2, breast cancer, Dr. Konstantinos Lazaridis, Genetic Counseling, Genetic Testing, ovarian cancer, Teresa Kruisselbrink, whole exome sequencing