Breakthrough in understanding of how cancer spreads could lead to better treatments

Why we write about this topic:

Cancer is the second biggest cause of death around the world. Luckily, there is extensive research being done about the disease, slowly changing the way we approach and treat various types of cancer. This discovery is a great example of that.

Cambridge scientists have discovered that cancer cells ‘hijack’ a process used by healthy cells to spread around the body, completely changing current ways of thinking around cancer metastasis, says the university in a press release.

The team based at the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) found that blocking the activity of the NALCN protein in cells in mice with cancer triggers metastasis (spreading through the body.) The research, which was published in Nature Genetics today, also discovered that this process is not just restricted to cancer. To their surprise, when they removed NALCN from mice without cancer, this caused their healthy cells to leave their original tissue and travel around the body where they joined other organs.

These findings are among the most important to have come out of my lab for three decades

Richard Gilbertson

Exploitation

They found, for example, that healthy cells from the pancreas migrated to the kidney where they became healthy kidney cells. This suggests that metastasis isn’t an abnormal process limited to cancer as previously thought, but is a normal process used by healthy cells that have been exploited by cancers to migrate to other parts of the body to generate metastases.

Group Leader for the study and Director of the CRUK, Professor Richard Gilbertson, said: “These findings are among the most important to have come out of my lab for three decades. Not only have we identified one of the elusive drivers of metastasis, but we have also turned a commonly held understanding of this on its head, showing how cancer hijacks processes in healthy cells for its own gains. If validated through further research, this could have far-reaching implications for how we prevent cancer from spreading and allow us to manipulate this process to repair damaged organs.”

PCR test predicts which medication will best work for cancer patient – Innovation Origins

Eindhoven-based InnoSIGN has developed a PCR test that brings personalized medication for cancer patients one step closer.

Prevention of spreading

Despite being one of the main causes of death in cancer patients, metastasis has remained incredibly difficult to prevent, largely because researchers have found it hard to identify key drivers of this process that could be targeted by drugs. Now that they have identified NALCN’s role in metastasis, the team is looking into various ways to restore its function, including using existing drugs on the market.

“We are incredibly excited to have identified a single protein that regulates not only how cancer spreads through the body, independent of tumor growth, but also normal tissue cell shedding and repair. We can now consider whether there are likely existing drugs which could be repurposed to prevent this mechanism from triggering cancer spreading in patients,” said the lead researcher of the study Dr. Eric Rahrmann.

The research was funded by CRUK, whose Director of Research, Dr. Catherine Elliott, said: “Once cancer has spread from the first tumor, it is harder to treat because we are looking at multiple sites in the body and working with new tumors that may be resistant to treatment. Discovering that cancer has spread is always devastating news for patients and their families and so we are delighted to have supported this incredible research which may one day allow us to prevent metastasis and turn cancer into a much more survivable disease.”

Researchers turn breast cancer cells into less harmful ones – Innovation Origins

University of Basel researchers have identified compounds that artificially mature breast cancer cells and convert them to normal cells.