Monday, February 15, 2010

Key to Cancer Spread Discovered

Cancer in one part of the body is horrible enough. But one of the disease's most terrifying characteristics is its ability to spread to other parts of the body, making it difficult or impossible to treat effectively. But now, doctors believe they have discovered the gene responsible for this sinister trick. This could lead to treatments far more effective in prolonging and savings lives of cancer victims.

The process called epithelial-mesenchymal transdifferientiation (EMT) has been known to play a role in releasing cells (epithelial cells) on the surface of the solid tumor and transforming them into transient mesenchymal cell: cells with the ability to start to grow a new tumor.
This is often the fatal process in breast, ovarian, pancreatic and colon-rectal cancers..."This is the major piece in cancer research that has been missing," Jin said.
This is one of those once-in-a-lifetime discoveries that could transform treatments and save lives.

1 comment:

shadowmom1 said...

Wow! This is huge.