Our Progress

Our group has been using a grid computing project from folding@home. We have been working with other groups on folding@home to find new mutations and protein misfoldings to be able to better predict misfoldings and mutations that are related to cancer. There has been a lot of progress through out the years for folding@home's work with cancer. In 2007 plans were started using folding@home as a new approach to fight cancer by developing novel chaperonin inhibitors which would inhibit certain protein foldings. Below are some certificates that are for our groups work with folding@home. These certificates show our work units and how many points we have accumulated thus far. How work units work is you complete certain work units for projects that folding at home is running. Depending on how many work units you complete and how many resources the projects take is what determines how many points you receive. Our CPU is working 100/500 work units up to this point.

This project was very rewarding for all of us. We feel like we have contributed a lot to folding@home's projects. We have decided to continue folding even after this service project is done. In the future we hope to see some really progressive results on finding a cure for cancer and we hope that folding@home can help us do just that.

Genetic & Environmental Factors that Influence Brain Cancer

1) What is the approximate heritability of brain cancer?
The heritability of brain cancers is extremely low and not precisely established. An informed estimation might suggest that the heritability is approximately 0.01 (less than 1%). Most cases of brain cancer are not inherited, although research is leading towards evidence that some genes causes susceptibility to cancer. Hereditary cancer syndrome is caused by a inherited gene mutation. If you inherit this mutation, your chances of developing this cancer increase. If multiple generations are affected by the same cancer, it is likely that those members have hereditary cancer syndrome. Overall, cancer is a highly multifactorial condition determined by genetic and environmental factors, although very little is definitively known about this disease.


2) What environmental factors influence this disease?
There are only a few well-established environmental influences that lead to the development of brain cancer. In a National Cancer Institute (NCI) study, researchers noted that people who have received high-dose ionizing radiation to the head during childhood have an increased risk of developing brain cancer. This type of radiotherapy includes exposure to gamma or X-rays. Aside from the small percentage linked to radiation exposure, few other risks have been determined. In the same study, NCI stated that there was "no evidence of higher brain tumor risk among people who use hand-held cellular phones compared to those who do not use them." The idea that cell phone use causes brain cancer is a myth.
According to numerous sources, another environmental factor that has been shown to contribute to brain cancer is vinyl chloride. This is a chemical found in plastic products and tobacco smoke.

Sources:
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/risk/brain-tumor-study
http://www.accessdna.com/condition/Brain_Cancer/67

Questions on Cancer and Stem Cells

These questions address the Cancer Research journal article entitled “Normal Stem Cells and Cancer Stem Cells: The Niche Matters” by Li and Neaves (2006).

1. In your interview, there was much discussion about potential treatments for cancer. This article addresses the idea of utilizing stem cells for cancer treatment, as well as its antithesis, as it discusses the role of stem cells in cancer causation. It states that as few as 1 to 2 mutations can change a stem cell into a cancer cell. Remembering that mutations generate variation, how is cancer an evolutionary phenomenon?

Cancer is an evolutionary phenomenon because the mutations of the cancer cell are not selected against. Usually when mutations occur in an organism that are deleterious and they are selected against and do not make it into the next generation because the organism does not survive long enough. Cancer cells are able to replicate without end from their niche when the niche isn't functioning correctly. The niche usually only lets certain stem cells replicate and doesn't allow stem cells with mutations to do so. It does this by controlling the rate of propagation and differentiation of the stem cells. When the niche is affected it cannot control either of these so mutations that can cause cancerous cells can be produced rapidly. Cancer is constantly affected through means of natural selection and cancer can become malignant or benign through mutation and reproduction. Cancer is also an evolutionary phenomenon, because it is a mutation within stem cells. It is hard to say how to treat cancer the best way because stem cells are rather complicated cells in that they not only multiply but they become different specialized cells for the specific organ that they are created in, so stems cells are constantly changing. It would be interesting to see what research has been done with treating cancerous cells with new stem cells from embryonic tissue. A pertinent question would be whether or not the new stem cells would start to develop and become viable cells specialized for the particular organ or if they would become cancerous cells like the ones that are present in the individual with cancer.

2. Most genes code for proteins. Given the information in this article and the above question, why is it important to look at protein folding and mis-folding when studying cancer?

It is important to study protein folding and mis-folding when studying cancer because mutations are what cause protein mis-folding. Protein mis-folding is what is occurring when cancer cells are created. If we can study and find out what mutations cause cancerous cells then we are one step closer to understanding what we can do to prevent these mutations from occurring. If we don't look at protein folding and miss-folding then we won't be able know why these cancer cells behave the way they do and how they were created. Proteins can fold in so many different ways, and for that matter can mis-fold in so many different ways. We need to continue to study the folding and mis-folding in cancerous cells because there is a great chance that there are multiple different ways that proteins can mis-fold and create a cancerous stem cell. Also, if we are able to identify what receptors fail to engage or the chaperone's responsible for particular proteins, we may be able to manipulate the system to perform more desirable outputs. If we find one mis-folding that causes cancer and we stop there then the problem still exists. We have to find out all of the different probabilities for what could possibly cause this disease.

3. In an evolutionary sense, why is it informative to study cancer and its implications in flies or, especially, in mice?

Evolutionarily it's important to study cancer and its implications in flies or in mice because if we can study the progression of cancer from beginning to end we can see how the cancerous cells are created and how they react within the body. It is especially important to study the implications of cancer within mice because they are evolutionarily closely related to humans, and are mammals as well. This means that most of the systems within their bodies react and act the same way that our own systems do. This can be very beneficial because if we can discover a way to effectively treat and destroy cancer cells in mice then there is a very good chance that this treatment would be effective in humans as well. Finally, it is also ethically more acceptable to begin experimentation on a species other than humans, like fruit flies or mice.

4. What is a niche in the context of an ecosystem? Is the stem cell “niche” similar, in that different niches impose different selection pressures on the stem cells? Explain how niche control of stem cells is like natural selection.

A niche in the context of an ecosystem is the position or function of an organism in a community of plants and animals. A stem cell "niche" is similar to an ecosystem niche because the stem cell niche acts as the controller of the function of the stem cell. It is what controls how rapidly and how many stem cells are created. The niche does impose different selection pressures on the stem cells. The niche selects for stem cells that do not have mutations to continue to propagate. The ones with mutations are not chosen. The niche control of stem cells is like natural selection because only the stems cells that will contribute positively with the environment and will be beneficial are selected for while stem cells with deleterious mutations are selected against. What is negative about these cancerous cells is that the niche is no longer able to control the rate at which the cells propagate and differentiate which can allow for a lot more mutations. So when a mutation occurs that creates a cancerous cell the niche will allow the cancerous stem cell to replicate rapidly. Without natural selection imposed by the niches things can get really dire in a body where cancerous mutations are abundant. By continuing the study the folding of proteins and the effects of mutation on stem cells we come closer to discovering how to bring back the effect of natural selection to the niches that control these stem cells.

Interview with Dr. Sarah A.Taylor

On Wednesday, February 17, 2010, we conducted an interview with medical oncologist Dr. Sarah A. Taylor at KU Medical Center. Dr. Taylor has been in practice since 1980. As part of the internal medicine department, she focuses on medical oncology, brain cancer, and breast cancer. The following is a summary of our interview. The answers reported are paraphrased below.

To begin the interview, Caitlin and I introduced ourselves and explained that we were conducting this interview as part of a service-learning project for our evolution class. We mentioned that we were participating in a grid-computing project and gave a brief explanation about what grid-computing entailed.

Q: Are you familiar with grid-computing and how it is affecting research in many medical areas?
A: It's all Greek to me.

(We then proceeded to explain more about our understanding of grid-computing).

Q: What is a typical day like for you? How does your role as a neuro-oncologist play into the team effort to treat brain tumors?
I wear a lot of different hats, so my days differ depending on what hat I am wearing. I am a neuro-oncologist, so three half-days a week I see patients with cancer. The majority of my patients have brain or spinal cord cancers. As an internal medicine person, I take care of all their internal medicine needs. I coordinate the care between their radiation doctor and surgical care doctor. Patient care is an ongoing part of my job. I am also the fellowship director for the Hematology and Oncology program. I have to develop curriculum, write objectives, and supervise the trainees who want to become hematologists/oncologists. Fifty percent of my time is devoted to that. I meet with them individually and review their evaluations by other professors. One half-day a week I visit them at their outpatient clinic and I supervise their care of their patients. I give lectures to them as well as parting of their teaching.
I attend journal club and tumor board, which are also part of teaching. At tumor boards, you have multiple doctors of different specialties. We present cases and discuss them to determine the best care for that patient. At journal club, we review current journal articles. We discuss what is good and bad about them and how they might change our practice.
In general, there is a lot of paper work involved. I work with medical students and residents to teach them internal medicine and oncology. I used to have some grants and do research, but the administrative part to being a fellowship director has changed over the years.


Q: What have been some of your general experiences with the disease?
On the human side, I see incredible strength and love between family members. They're angels. Brain cancer can cause personality changes and significant brain damage, so the person you may have married may not be the same. I have had the privilege to work with the patients and families dealing with pretty horrify things, and see that they're still cared for very carefully. I think cancer in general carries a connotation that is very frightening to anybody, but especially talking about the brain, which controls your life, it can have an even more frightening aspect concerning that loss of control. I get very close to patients because of what they are dealing with.
On the scientific side, I think we have seen some exciting changes with how brain cancer is treated and looked at. I've been in medicine a long time and a lot of doctors used to think oncologist were wasting their time. Now, I've seen a real progress in how aggressive treatment has become. I see people living longer and better, so that is pretty exciting.

Q: Why do you think a physician or researcher of neuro-oncology should be well versed in evolution?
I've never thought about that before. In life, you are best to learn from history. If you forget history, the you can repeat mistakes. I look at evolution as part of history, on the science side. I think if you look at how we get to the basics on the molecular way things work, it goes along those lines too.

Q: Do you feel the general public have a good grasp on the severity of brain cancer and do you feel there is enough emphasis on searching for treatment and cures, like there is for breast cancer?
There are definitely more organizations and publicity now for brain cancer than there were before, like the Brain Cancer Foundation and American Brain Tumor Association. There are certainly some neuro-oncologists that are more verbal than others, who have certainly tried to put it more in the limelight and have helped in that way. I think anytime you have someone famous with a particular cancer, it gets put more in the spotlight. That is what happened with breast cancer years ago. In terms of the severity, I think most people are nervous about it and recognize that it is a very serious problem.
Whether we get enough research funds, we would all like more, but breast cancer is a huge problem. Hundreds of thousands get breast cancer each year, as opposed to about 25,000 that get brain cancer, so by its sheer volume, I don't think brain cancer funding will ever be equal. I'm sure my brain patients wouldn't appreciate me saying this, but I think the money should be allocated to where the great need is.

Q: What can the average person do to improve research and funding for brain cancer?
There are fundraisers and various walks you can participate in. You can make donations to the Brain Tumor Foundation and The Cancer Society. I don't know that there is much else for the average person to do besides fundraising and showing support.

Q: Are there specific walks around the Kansas City area?
There have been several. One in particular is Head For The Cure. The ABTA has had them, but haven't had nearly the amount of participants as say a walk for breast cancer. There are multiple neuro-oncologist in the area; however, a lot of the funds raised go to MD Anderson Cancer Centers. It stared years ago, so some of their fundraising takes place in Kansas City.

Q: What would you suggest to caregivers and friends of persons battling brain cancer?
I try to teach them things while I have them in my clinic. It is always good to keep being educated. Learning more about what you are dealing with is helpful. We have a caregiver class here once a year to learn about brain cancer, physical therapy, and occupational therapy and different resources. the more they understand the easier it is to cope. One of the things that is hard is that people with cancer, in general, want to be the people they were before they got cancer. They want the friend or wife to show them the same amount of respect and treat them the same. No matter how good the outcome can be, its a traumatic thing that impacts all your relationships. It impacts your philosophy of life.
Allowing people to help is an important aspect of care-giving. Sometimes it is very hard for caregivers to take time for themselves.

Q: Just a final question, what is your favorite part of your job or favorite past experience?
That's a hard question. I really enjoy my patients. I love working with medical students. The last three years, I've gone on medical missions with the students to Belize. It's probably one of the best things I've done in my career. It's not neuro-oncology, but general medical care. It's all organized by our medical students. They raise the money, contact the government, get permission, set of the villages, buy the drugs, rent the vans, and arrange the places we stay. We go to 4 different villages in the rain forest and set up villages, churches, and schools. It is so cool! The most fun is people - whether it be patients, families, or students, at all levels. That is what I like the best.

Q: Is that why you went into this profession?
Yep, the people. I love people.... and science :)

(We then concluded the interview and thanked Dr. Taylor for her time and information.)

An Explanation of Brain Cancer

Just for some background information, here are some facts about brain tumors including grades, diagnoses, and treatments.

First, symptoms of a brain tumor could include everything from severe headaches to seizure to stroke. Particularly, loss of feeling in an arm or leg, double vision, hearing loss, dizziness, nausea and aphasia. Different parts of the brain can be affected based on its location. MRI's and CT scans are performed to obtain accurate information on size and location of possible tumors.

There are four grades of common brain tumors as in other cancers:
Grade I: Pilocytic Astrocytoma
Grade II: Low-grade Astrocytoma
Grade III: Anaplastic Astrocytoma
Grade IV: Glioblastoma (GBM)



Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 respectively

Grade I tumors have slowed growth, accounts for approximately 2% of all brain tumors and occurs most often in children and young adults.
Grade II tumors are also slow growing and while they have a low risk of metastasizing to other areas of the body, they do have undefined borders and are found equally in men and women.
Grade III tumors grow faster than grades I and II and likely invade other tissue areas. They are more common in males and account for 4% of all brain tumors.
Grade IV tumors are the most invasive of all brain tumors and commonly spread to other parts of the body. They have very aggressive growth rates and are composed of various cell types. Grade IV tumors are more common in men in their 50's-70's and account for 23% of all brain tumors. The likelihood of Grade IV tumors recurring is very high and about 5% of patients survive 2 years.

Nearly all brain tumors are treated with surgery followed by radiation, chemotherapy or both concurrently.
Just over 43,000 primary brain tumors are diagnosed every year in the United States and even with surgery and treatment, prognosis of high grade gliomas is slim. While there are advocacy programs across the country for brain tumors, we are taking our own role in actively searching for treatments that could ultimately lead to a cure.

Follow our progress on our grid computing project at this link: folding@home
(If the link for this doesn't work then right click and copy the link location and then paste it into the search bar)
To find out more about grid computing projects go to this link: volunteer@home

National Brain Tumor Society