A protein found in ovarian cancer tumors transforms cancer cells into hungry cannibals, slowing women’s cancer growth, researchers at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report.
This finding, published in the November issue of Cancer Research, paves the way for the creation of a drug that would force ovarian cancer cells to eat themselves to death.
Ovarian cancer killed over 15,000 women in 2007, while an additional 22,000 women were diagnosed. Because there are no sure-fire methods of early detection, researchers agree that finding aggressive treatments for the cancer is essential.
Chandra Bartholomeusz, part of this M.D. Anderson Cancer Center team, conducted the series of experiments on ovarian tumor tissue from 395 women, in which she stimulated one batch of ovarian cancer cells to produce more of this protein, called PEA-15, and another batch to inhibit the manufacture of the protein. She was surprised to find that the cancer cells lacking PEA-15 increased in number by 115% compared to controls.
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