Scientists have found a code for turning off cancer

Fiona Macrae, Science Editor For The Daily Mail writes,

Scientists have found a code for turning off cancer, it was announced today.

In exciting experiments, they made cancerous breast and bladder cells benign again.

And they believe many other types of cancer should be in their grasp.

They said that their work reveals ‘an unexpected new biology that provides the code, the software for turning off cancer’.

Most importantly, it uncovers ‘a new strategy for cancer therapy’.

In landmark research, Mayo Clinic scientists made cancerous cells benign again. And they believe many other types of cancer should be in their grasp.

...The breakthrough focuses on a protein called PLEKHA7 that helps healthy cells clump together.

The research, from the Mayo Clinic in Florida, showed it to be missing or faulty in a range of cancers.

When this happens, key genetic instructions to the cells are scrambled and they turn cancerous.

A research team, led by Panos Anastasiadis, was able to reset the instructions – turning off the cancer.

Experiments in a dish showed that human cells from highly dangerous bladder cancers can be made normal again.

Dr Anastasiadis said: ‘Initial experiments in some aggressive types of cancer are indeed very promising.’

He thinks the approach, detailed in the journal Nature Cell Biology, would apply to most cancers, other than brain and blood cancers.

...Henry Scowcroft, Cancer Research UK’s senior science information manager, said: ‘This important study solves a long-standing biological mystery, but we mustn’t get ahead of ourselves.

'There’s a long way to go before we know whether these findings, in cells grown in a laboratory, will help treat people with cancer.’

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