Cervical and throat cancer cell hope

SCIENTISTS in Belfast have claimed a major breakthrough which they say could lead to more effective treatments for throat and cervical cancers.

Queen’s University said the discovery could see the development of new therapies to target non-cancerous cells, or stroma, surrounding a tumour, as well as the tumour itself, to prevent its spread.

Professor Dennis McCance who led the Cancer Research and Cell Biology team, said: “Cancer spreads as the result of two-way communication between the cancer cells in a tumour and the non-cancerous cells in the surrounding tissue.

“We already know that cancer cells are programmed to invade neighbouring healthy tissue. If these messages from the healthy tissue to the tumour can be switched off, then its spread will be inhibited.”