Cancer therapy: A newly discovered active compound, to suppress effectively the formation of metastases

Breakthrough in cancer research

Metastasis in many cancers such as breast cancer, the biggest risk for the person Concerned. More than 90 percent of cancer deaths metastases for the severe course of the disease are responsible. You will apply according to the current state of medicine as a virtually incurable. A Swiss research team recently discovered a substances, the tumor prevents cells from forming metastases.

Researchers from the University of and the University hospital of Basel, discovered recently in the context of a study of a new active substances, the formation of metastases in cancer. The results of the research the Team published in the prestigious Fachjornal “Cell”.

What are the metastases and how they arise?

Normally, every cell in the body belongs to a certain cell Association, for example, a heart cell remains a heart cell and a liver cell remains a liver cell. Tumor cells can exceed these limits, however, by cells from the cell bandage and remove in the blood or the lymph channels on the move. So they get into other Tissues, where they settle in the worst case, and metastases form – the so-called metastases.

The deadly potential of cancer reduce

The Swiss research team followed an interdisciplinary approach, the micro-biologists, physicians and bioinformaticians Hand-in-Hand working together. So you were able to identify a substance, the cancer cell associations prevent to form further secondary growths. “We did not follow the standard approach and agents are looking for, the cancer cells kill,” explains Professor Dr. Nicola Aceto, in a press release announcing the study results. Rather, it was in the study to identify the medications with which the cell clusters are made ineffective for metastases to form.

Cancer cells on the move

Attack points of the new active ingredient, the circulating tumor cells (CTCs) that break away from a Tumor and other tissues, new tumors can form. According to the researchers, the CTCs could be as single-cell or groups of cells in the bloodstream and the lymphatic system. It is the circulating tumor cell clusters (CTC clusters) are in the first place for a metastasis responsible, reports the cancer experts.

When form CTC-Cluster bead a Daughter?

The Swiss research group reported, in the course of the CTC cluster formation is also a chemical change in the circulating cancer cells. As a result, certain genes are activated in the cancer cells, or deactivated, allowing the cancer cells the characteristics of embryonic stem cells. So you’d be in first by the formation of clusters is the ability to grow uncontrollably and to generate various types of tissue. Single circulating tumor cells do not possess this ability.

Assembly ban on cancer cells

The researchers have documented in their study that these chemical changes can completely reverse. They discovered an active ingredient that causes the circulating Cell clusters, in single cells split, causing you to lose the above properties. Overall, the Team looked in 2486 by the US food and drug administration FDA-approved substances, a suitable active ingredient. Actual the researchers found inhibitors, which cause a dissolution of the CTC-Cluster and so a metastasis prevent. In the next step, the new treatment should be tested in the context of a clinical study in patients with breast cancer. (vb)