Aggressive forms of endometrial cancer are linked to high levels of a protein linked to appetite and blood pressure, a conference heard yesterday.
Endometrial cancer affects 98,000 women in Europe, mostly aged over 55 years. Of the three grades of endometrial cancer, grade 3 (high grade) cancers are the most aggressive and likely to spread.
A team of researchers from the National Yang-Ming University in Taipei, China, compared different grades of endometrial carcinomas (the most common form of endometrial cancer) and normal endometrial tissue.
They found that endometrial carcinomas have higher levels of a protein called Neuromedin U, or NMU, which has been shown to play a role in muscle contraction, regulating blood pressure and appetite. When the NMU gene was suppressed, high-graded cancer cells were slower to grow and found it harder to move, which could cut the risk of it spreading to other parts of the body.
The research was presented yesterday (6 May) at the European Congress of Endocrinology in Wroclow, Poland.
Lead author, Mr Ting-Yu Lin, believes this finding could allow researchers to slow down aggressive progression of endometrial cancer.
"Our results show that high levels of NMU in endometrial cancer cells might maintain the ability of metastasis," he said. "This does not show that NMU causes grade 1 endometrial carcinomas to progress to grade 3 stage but does give us an insight into one of the potential causes of aggression."
He added: "If we can use NMU as a treatment target of high-graded endometrial carcinomas, we can slow down the level of cancer progression. This could potentially save lives."
Lin, T-Y. et al. The NMU signalling controls cancer progression of human RL95-2 endometrial cancer cells through cell motility maintenance. Presented on Tuesday 6 May 2014 at the 16th European Congress of Endocrinology held in Wroclaw, Poland, from 3-7 May 2014.
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