CANCER RESEARCH UK scientists have shown how bowel cancer can become aggressive, according to research published in Nature Genetics.
The researchers, based in the Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University and at Cancer Research UK's Beatson Institute in Glasgow found that a tumour suppressor protein called Pten is critical in stopping tumours from growing in mice. Importantly, they found that when Pten becomes faulty some of these tumours turn aggressive.
The team worked out that when Pten faults coincide with faults in another protein called APC, then a kinase protein called AKT stimulates tumours to become aggressive and they are then more likely to spread. They identified AKT as a strong lead for drug development to target bowel cancer.
Previously scientists thought that faulty Pten was important in the early stages of bowel cancer initiation, but the researchers have found that the situation is far more complex, with faulty Pten a trigger that can act later on tumours to make them aggressive.
The team showed that Pten slows the growth of tumours in mice following the activation of a molecular pathway called WNT. This pathway involves numerous proteins talking to each other to ultimately control cell division. WNT is already known to be the molecular pathway most commonly faulty in bowel tumours.
Cancer is caused by uncontrolled cell growth and division. Identifying the key proteins which control complicated molecular networks inside cells and what happens when these proteins become faulty is fundamental to our understanding how cancer develops.