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Scientists Find a Possible Way To Interrupt Stomach Cancer Before It Begins
Confirmed
In Short: The findings could eventually point researchers toward new ways to make some cancers more vulnerable to treatment.
Scientists in Glasgow have discovered a potential new treatment for liver and bowel cancers by focusing on genetic faults that allow these diseases to hijack the body's growth system, according to a study published in Nature Genetics.
The Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute found that a protein called nucleophosmin (NPM1), which controls cell growth, is present in high levels in bowel cancer and some liver cancers due to genetic errors in the WNT pathway.
By blocking this protein, researchers believe it may be possible to develop new treatments for specific cancers that exploit the body's growth system.
In a separate study, scientists at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin have mapped a key part of the stomach cancer development process in unprecedented detail.
Their research, published in Nature Communications, shows how chronic infection with Helicobacter pylori, a common stomach bacterium, alters communication among immune cells, connective tissue, and stomach lining cells.
The infected mucosa begins growing rapidly even though the stomach’s classic stem cells are not expanding as expected, suggesting a developmental repair program that pushes gastric tissue toward a precancerous state.
By selectively interrupting specific signaling pathways, the team could determine which cells were sending particular molecular messages and which cells were responding.
This breakthrough could introduce ways to interrupt the process preventing disease growth before a tumor forms.
Bowel cancer remains the second most common cause of cancer death in the UK, claiming around 1,700 lives annually, while around 670 people die from liver cancer each year in Scotland.
Finding more effective ways to tackle these diseases is crucial, according to Prof Owen Sansom.
What this adds
The BBC and SciTechDaily reports provide new insights into the genetic and signaling pathways involved in liver, bowel, and stomach cancers, highlighting potential new treatment targets.
What's confirmed
- Scientists in Glasgow have discovered a potential new treatment for liver and bowel cancers by focusing on genetic faults that allow these diseases to hijack the body's growth system, according to a study published in Nature Genetics.
- The Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute found that a protein called nucleophosmin (NPM1), which controls cell growth, is present in high levels in bowel cancer and some liver cancers due to genetic errors in the WNT pathway.
- By blocking this protein, researchers believe it may be possible to develop new treatments for specific cancers that exploit the body's growth system.
- In a separate study, scientists at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin have mapped a key part of the stomach cancer development process in unprecedented detail.
- Their research, published in Nature Communications, shows how chronic infection with Helicobacter pylori, a common stomach bacterium, alters communication among immune cells, connective tissue, and stomach lining cells.
- The infected mucosa begins growing rapidly even though the stomach’s classic stem cells are not expanding as expected, suggesting a developmental repair program that pushes gastric tissue toward a precancerous state.
- By selectively interrupting specific signaling pathways, the team could determine which cells were sending particular molecular messages and which cells were responding.
- This breakthrough could introduce ways to interrupt the process preventing disease growth before a tumor forms.
- Bowel cancer remains the second most common cause of cancer death in the UK, claiming around 1,700 lives annually, while around 670 people die from liver cancer each year in Scotland.
- Finding more effective ways to tackle these diseases is crucial, according to Prof Owen Sansom.
What's still developing
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- Researchers led by Prof. Michael Sigal and Dr. Manqiang Lin at Charité are studying what happens in the stomach tissue of such patients long before cancer becomes detectable.
- During that long interval, the stomach lining can undergo a series of molecular and cellular changes that gradually push healthy tissue toward a precancerous state.
- It is often acquired within families and can cause chronic inflammation, ulcers, and, in some people, changes that increase the risk of stomach cancer.
- That risk is particularly relevant for people with a family history of gastric cancer linked to H.
- What remained less clear was how infection-driven inflammation causes the stomach lining to change its identity and growth behavior.
- "Scientists long believed this process was absolutely essential for all living cells," Schmidt said.
- "This same pathway that protects our cells from oxidants or toxins also likely protects cancer cells from therapies," Schmidt said.
- Scientists once thought this kind of survival was impossible.
- Scientists had long assumed that having at least one functioning version of this system was essential for cellular life.