Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Extracellular proteins found that lead to aggressive tumors spread in body

Most of the cancer deaths have been occurred through spreading of the tumor in body from where it is originally located it is known as metastasis. The tumor travels through all body parts capturing it and hence leading to death. According to a new study conducted by the team of MIT cancer biologists they have now identified the proteins that help in this process and are called extracellular matrix. It helps in spreading of cancer cells. The researchers further lined up at-least dozens of proteins that can be surrounded by metastatic tumors and is as dangerous as cancer. The lead researcher, Richard Hynes, from MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research explains, “The problem is, all the current drugs are targeted to primary tumors. Once a metastasis appears, in many cases, there's nothing you can do about it. In principle, one could imagine interfering with some of these extracellular proteins and blocking metastasis in a patient. We're a long way from that, but it's not inconceivable.”

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