Gene finding offers skin cancer hope
Monday June 10th, 2013
New genetic discoveries may help scientists design drugs to stop the skin cancer melanoma spreading, it was announced last night.
The British scientists say the genes control changes in the shape of cancer cells - and this allows them to "wriggle" free and spread around the body.
The cells can be a long shape or a round shape. Being round helps them travel in the bloodstream or invade the brain while the long shape allows them to get into organs such as bones.
The genetic discovery by researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, was reported in the journal Nature Cell Biology.
Researcher Dr Chris Bakal said: “The ability to change shape allows melanoma cells to invade lots of different tissues throughout the body, particularly the liver, lungs and brain. We knew these cells were shape-shifters but we didn’t know what controlled these changes.
"This research arms us with new information about how they change shape and provides a new set of targets for the development of drugs for melanoma skin cancer."
Zheng Yin et al, A Screen for Morphological Complexity Identifies Regulators of Switch-like Transitions between Discrete Cell Shapes. Nature Cell Biology. 9 June 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ncb2764
Tags: Cancer | Dermatology | Genetics | UK News
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