Last month, Experimental Biology and Medicine published results from a Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center study, which found that a cellular defensive system called the ISG15 pathway – involved in fighting bacterial and viral infection – is triggered during a stage in breast cancer. The pathway disrupts cytoskeletal function and increases the possibility that cancer cells will spread. In an LSU-generated press release, the leader of the study, Shyamal Desai Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, said, “Our findings, for the first time, causally link an alteration in the ISG15 pathway during transformation with metastatic potential, thus providing a novel therapeutic target for future drug discovery.”
The Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons recently granted Children’s Hospital’s Hematology Oncology Department with an Outstanding Achievement Award, recognizing cancer programs that strive for excellence in cancer committee leadership, clinical management, research, community outreach and quality improvement. With this accreditation, the program ensures that patients have access to a spectrum of full-quality comprehensive cancer care.
Research led by Dr. Paul Harch, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at LSUHSC, has revealed that treatment with hyperbaric oxygen nearly three years after injury significantly improved function and quality of life for veterans with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. Sixteen injured U.S. veterans – who had been diagnosed with mild to moderate traumatic brain injury/post-concussion syndrome or post-traumatic distress disorder – received 40 treatments of low-dose hyperbaric oxygen therapy during hour-long sessions within 30 days. “The magnitude of the improvements in memory, executive function, functional brain imaging, and quality of life, as well as reduction in concussion and PTSD symptoms, cannot be explained with a placebo effect,” said Dr. Harch.
