New attack on cancer forces cells to grow old and die

[Kadie]

New attack on cancer forces cells to grow old and die

By Julie Steenhuysen Julie Steenhuysen – Wed Mar 17, 7:56 pm ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Instead of killing off cancer cells with toxic drugs, scientists have discovered a molecular pathway that forces them to grow old and die, they said on Wednesday.

Cancer cells spread and grow because they can divide indefinitely.

But a study in mice showed that blocking a cancer-causing gene called Skp2 forced cancer cells to go through an aging process known as senescence -- the same process involved in ridding the body of cells damaged by sunlight.

If you block Skp2 in cancer cells, this process is triggered, Pier Paolo Pandolfi of Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues reported in the journal Nature.

And Takeda Pharmaceutical Co's experimental cancer drug MLN4924 -- already in early-stage clinical trials in people -- appears to have the power to do just that, Pandolfi said in a telephone interview.

The finding may offer a new strategy for fighting cancer.

more...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_cancer_age

[WhiteTara]

1. wow. that is really incredible

if it works.

[tavalon]

2. Cut to two and a half years later and no one is alive but

Will Smith and his dog...............*

*extra points for anyone who knows the reference

As an aside, what's not to like in senescence if you're talking about cancer. Unfortunately, it is the overall body cell senescence that allows cancer cells to create themselves in the first place.

[pleah]

3. K&R Cool! n/t

[BlancheSplanchnik]

4. of course the irony of medical miracles in a society that witholds them from the people.....

either no insurance and you're SOL, or you have insurance that refuses experimental or most effective treatments, requiring first that you exhaust all other (cheap) options.

For cancer, that would mean starting with leeches and amputations (without anaesthetic -- that would be added expense)

[TwilightGardener]

5. That's very interesting.

[salguine]

6. And if it actually works, it'll be buried because there's more money in endless

ineffective treatment than in cure.