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Cancer Hope From Cell Research

Posted on: Monday, 20 September 2004, 06:00 CDT

RADICALLY improved cancer treatments could be developed within three years following a breakthrough by scientists in Scotland studying cell growth.

Professor Nick La Thangue, who heads a 20-strong team at Glasgow University's Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, claims to have deciphered a crucial molecular command system which can prevent tumours from growing.

The discovery could lead to treatments which block the development of tumours without destroying healthy cells, thus avoiding the devastating side-effects associated with traditional cancer therapy.

The team's findings, published last night on the online edition of the science journal Nature Cell Biology, mark the first time the biological mechanism preventing cell growth has been fully mapped.

Targeting the molecular pathways which trigger cancer has attracted considerable interest among cancer re-searchers and several drugs based on this approach have been licensed over the past two years. However, research so far has targeted the mutant proteins which stimulate cell growth in tumours. Despite impressive results, cancerous cells have proved adept at mutating so as to render the treatment ineffective in the long term.

By contrast, Professor La Thangue's research has targeted the proteins responsible for preventing cell growth. In healthy cells, these act as a natural braking mechanism on growth but are absent in cancerous tissue.

He predicted that developing a drug to the stage of clinical trials could happen "within two to three years".

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