Cellular change
thought to happen only in late-stage cancers to help tumors spread also occurs
in early-stage lung cancer as a way to bypass growth controls, say researchers
at Mayo Clinic in Florida.
The finding, reported in the July 11 issue of Science
Translational Medicine, represents a new understanding of the extent of
transformation that lung cancer — and likely many other tumor types — undergo
early in disease development, the scientists say. They add that the discovery
also points to a potential strategy to halt this process, known as
epithelial-mesenchymal transition, or EMT.
"Our study points to EMT as a key step in lung cancer progression
during the earliest stages of cancer development," says lead investigator
and cancer biologist Derek Radisky, Ph.D.
"Normal cells recognize when they are dividing
too rapidly, and turn on programs that block inappropriate cell division. Here
we found that early-stage lung cancer cells switch on EMT in order to bypass
these controls," he says.
The discovery could offer a new way to prevent
progression to late-stage lung cancer, possibly by inhibiting a particular
molecule from functioning, Dr. Radisky says.
Because EMT is a well-recognized late-stage transition
that occurs in all sorts of solid tumors, the researchers say they believe that
the same early-stage use of EMT they found in lung cancer is likely occurring
in other cancers.
EMT is a biological process used in embryonic
development to allow body development, which requires the ability of cells and
tissues to morph from one type to another, and develop in an orchestrated
fashion.
Late-stage cancer uses EMT to change tumor cells into a form
that can migrate through blood.
"The gaps in our knowledge of lung cancer have
not allowed us to develop more effective targeted therapies," Dr. Radisky
says. "This study offers us great new clues for a new approach to treating
lung and possibly other cancers as early as possible."
Provided by Mayo
Clinic
No comments:
Post a Comment