Glasgow team’s ‘encouraging’ discovery in cancer fight
A team from the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow said it had proved a specific gene, P-Rex1, must be present before malignant melanoma can spread in a patient.
Using a grant from the Association for International Cancer Research, Professor Owen Sansom and his team conducted a study using mice, which mirror the common human genetics of melanoma, and found that if P-Rex1 was absent from the cells, the melanoma tumours were unable to spread.
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Hide AdThey were able to decipher the exact mechanism P-Rex1 uses to spread and which is blocked when the gene is removed.
They then confirmed that human melanoma samples, taken from patients’ tumours, contained raised levels of P-Rex1.
Prof Sansom said: “These findings are encouraging.”