British researchers may have found a new way to tackle the skin cancer, melanoma, and prevent it spreading round the body, it was announced yesterday.
Researchers believe it should be possible to develop drugs based on their findings.
The findings have emerged from studies of the mechanism used by cancer cells to escape the original tumour and spread round the body.
These have shown that they change shapes – becoming round to travel through the blood and long and thin to break through bone.
Now the researchers at King’s College, London, say this depends on molecules called matrix metalloproteinases, which help break down tissue.
They have reported their findings in Nature Communications.
Researcher Dr Victoria Sanz-Moreno, a Cancer Research UK scientist at King’s College London, UK, said: “Our work shows that MMPs are more important in aiding melanoma cells to spread than we previously thought, telling us more about how they move and invade different parts of the body.
“Developing drugs that block MMPs could be an exciting new avenue for treating malignant melanomas in the future.”
Dr Kat Arney, of Cancer Research UK, which helped back the research, said: “Most cancer deaths are caused by the disease spreading round the body, so this kind of research is vital if we’re to improve survival from advanced tumours.”
Orgaz, JL et al. Diverse matrix metalloproteinase functions regulate cancer amoeboid migration. Nature Communications 25 June 2014; doi:10.1038/ncomms5255
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