metastasis tagged posts

Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast discovered how the journey or molecular pathway of an identified protein is both essential for brain development and how an alteration to its pathway could result in the spread of cancer.

The study, published today in Nature Cell Biology, has revealed the molecular mechanisms of a timely and spatially controlled movement of cells that is essential for the migration of newborn neurons during brain development and can also cause the spread of cancer, or cancer metastasis throughout the body.

It is expected this discovery will have a huge impact on the fundamental understanding of cancer metastasis and brain development and could lead to earlier diagnosis and better treatments, the research authors said.

During brain development, neural ...

The image shows a metastatic colon tumour infiltrated by the immune system (brown) after combined treatment with the TGF-beta inhibitor and immunotherapy. (Author: Daniele Tauriello, IRB Barcelona)

Immune system-stimulating treatments combined with a TGF-beta inhibitor are effective against colon cancer. Researchers have developed a mouse model that mimics advanced human colon cancer. This model has allowed them to study the immune system response for the first time. In a short space of time, immunotherapy, that is to say therapies based on stimulating the immune system against cancer cells, has become a powerful approach to treat cancers such as melanoma and lung cancer. However, to date, most colon tumours appeared to be unresponsive to this kind of therapy...

Killer T cells surround a cancer cell. Credit: NIH

An international team discovered how a shift to increased fat utilization is required for the development and growth of lymphatic vessels for metastasis. This discovery paves the way towards developing therapeutics to limit lymphatic vessel growth in cancer by targeting fat utilization. Formation of new lymphatic vessels, ie lymphangiogenesis, is a poorly understood process, which currently lacks clinically approved drugs to prevent their growth during disease.

The study began with a simple observation: lymphatics use more fatty acids compared to blood vessels. This is the first description of the nutrient utilization of lymphatic vessels...

Migrating tumor cells produce a protein that aids them to set up home in bones, researchers show. If a tumor develops metastases, the chances of the patient’s survival will be severely diminished. Cancer cells that leave the primary tumor, travel through the body, and set up home in distal organs such as lungs and bones start to express cathepsin K ~ primarily found only in the bone and is secreted by osteoclasts.

Shastri and Christensen found in cell cultures, cathepsin K activated matrixmetalloprotease-9 (MMP-9), one of the key regulators of tumour development. MMP-9 can digest the bone matrix thereby allowing the arriving cancer cells to adapt and survive in their new environment...