Sources: BBC Health News; Oncogene
Researchers at the University of East Anglia (in Norwich, in the UK) claim to have discovered a gene which may cause cancer cells to move throughout the body. Experiments on tissue cultures (this is all currently in a lab) published in Oncogene, suggest that blocking it would prevent cancers spreading. The researchers hope their work will lead to a new generation of cancer drugs within the next 10 years.
There are treatments for primary cancers, but tumors have the potential to spread. The process of metastasis is one where tumor cells break off and travel around the body, through the bloodstream or lymph fluid, and start a new or secondary tumour where they land. Breast cancers are known to spread to lymph nodes, the bones and the lungs. It is these secondary tumors which are difficult to treat.
The gene, WWP2, leads to the breakdown of an inhibitor that normally keeps cells in check. In tissue cultures without the inhibitor, Smad7, cancer progressed very quickly and spread. Blocking the gene prevented that spread.
Dr Andrew Chantry, who led the study, said: “I think we’re really onto something important if we can put a wall around a cancer and lock it in place. “The discovery could lead to the development of a new generation of drugs within the decade that could be used to stop the aggressive spread of most forms of the disease.”
Dr Kat Arney, science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “Over recent decades researchers all over the world have discovered genes that drive the growth and spread of cancer, and this research adds one more to this ever-growing list. “But, while these new results aid our understanding of the complexities of cancer and could point towards potential leads for future anti-cancer drugs, the work is still at the laboratory stage.”
Unfortunately, the pace of such research will not keep with the pace of those dying from metastatic cancer currently.
~Posted by D.M. Schwadron, Esquire