Clinical Roundup

Clinical Roundup

NIH study links neighborhood environment to prostate cancer risk in men with West African genetic ancestry

West African genetic ancestry was associated with increased prostate cancer among men living in disadvantaged neighborhoods but not among men living in more affluent neighborhoods, according to a new study led by NIH researchers. The findings suggest that neighborhood environment may play a role in determining how genetic ancestry influences prostate cancer risk. 
Clinical Roundup

Wistar Institute researchers identify the role of a Parkinson’s disease-related protein in cancer and T-cell activation

The Wistar Institute’s president and CEO, Dario C. Altieri, and his team have demonstrated the role of Parkin—a protein implicated in Parkinson’s disease—in the body’s innate immune response to cancer. Parkin is not expressed in several cancers. Altieri and his team engineered cancer cells to re-express Parkin and found that Parkin contributes to the production of interferons, which activate and attract T cells to fight the tumor. The lab’s findings were published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.