Cancer growth is a long, complex, multi-stage process involving a variety of different "players." This complexity is part of the difficulty facing cancer researchers. Meanwhile, each discovery or identification of a new "player," or previously unknown stage in the process, offers new opportunities for blocking the disease.
Recently, a team of Weizmann Institute scientists has discovered an important "player" in the development of colon cancer. The researchers – Prof. Avri Ben-Ze'ev of the Molecular Cell Biology Department and Dr. Nancy Gavert, M.D., a surgeon and current Ph.D. student, published their findings in the Journal of Cell Biology.
Prof. Ben-Ze'ev has long been studying the exact role of a gene called beta-catenin in various types of cancer. It is known that beta-catenin activates other genes, and in previous studies, Prof. Ben-Ze'ev's group had identified several beta-catenin activated genes that are involved in the development of malignant melanoma and colon cancer.