Key factor found for cancer metastases

Key factor discovered for metastasis in skin cancer

27/10/2013

Rostock scientists have discovered a protein that is responsible for the scattering of tumor cells in black skin cancer. Black skin cancer is one of the most dangerous cancers because the metastases begin to spread at an early stage.

Clarification of dangerous metastasis
Scientists in Rostock have made an important step forward in cancer research. As Brigitte Pützer from the Institute for Experimental Gene Therapy and Tumor Research at the University of Rostock announced, the discovery of the key protein DNp73 in these melanoma cells gives access to the elucidation of the dangerous metastasis of tumors. Ultimately, with this finding, the danger of a tumor can be described in more detail. Like the researchers in the journal „Cancer Cell“ reported that the more DNp73 there is in a cancer cell, the greater the risk of detachment from the parent tumor.

Mechanism as in colon and prostate cancer
The Rostockers have found that DNp73 is more common in tumors the more it penetrates into deeper layers of the skin. This causes the detachment of the aggressive cell from the cell structure and eventually lead to their migration through the bloodstream to other parts of the body. In addition, it has been shown that the same mechanism also exists in intestinal or prostate cancer. DNp73 is a truncated form of the p73 closely related to the protein p53, which actually acts as a so-called tumor suppressor to ensure that the organism is spared from cancerous degeneration.

Drugs to suppress metastasis
Thanks to p53 and p73, programmed cell death is usually triggered when a cell is damaged too severely. „In the course of tumor development, however, the variant DNp73 arises, which causes the exact opposite“, so Pützer. DNp73 prevents the formation of another protein responsible for the stability of actin fibers. These ensure the cohesion of the cells in the tissue association. The Rostock scientists were also able to develop an antagonist for DNp73, which suppresses the invasiveness of skin cancer cells. This development could be an approach to the production of drugs that suppress metastasis.

Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer
In Germany, black skin cancer (malignant melanoma) is now the most common type of cancer among young people. As the German Cancer Aid recently said, frequent visits to the solarium could be one reason for this. For this year alone, around 30,000 new diagnoses are expected. Malignant melanoma has been known to spread metastases in the body at an early stage of the disease. Patients do not die directly from the skin cancer, but from a cancer of other organs, which is caused by the spread of metastases. Black skin cancer is by far the most dangerous skin cancer variant and the most frequently fatal skin disease worldwide. When the metastases begin to spread, around 90 percent of patients die within five years. (Ad)