Cancer, A Wound That Doesn't Heal
Wound healing and cancer progression have striking similarities, including
the growth of new blood vessels (angiogenesis), the rearrangement of the
molecular matrix around the cells, and changes in how cells attach to each
other.
Finding: The molecular programs in normal wound healing and those in
tumor progression and metastasis were found to be similar.
Comment: This is an interesting and important concept. The genetic
programs activated within cells in the healing of a wound may also contribute to
the ability of tumor cells for invasion and metastasis (spread).
Barbara K. Hecht,
Ph.D.
Frederick Hecht, M.D.
Medical Editors, MedicineNet.com
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WOUND-HEALING GENES INFLUENCE CANCER PROGRESSION, SAY STANFORD RESEARCHERS
STANFORD, Calif.-- Genes that help wounds heal are
most often the "good guys," but a new study paints them as the enemy in some
types of cancer. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have
found that some tumors activate these wound-healing genes and, when they do, the
tumors are more likely to spread. This work could help highlight new ways to
treat the disease along with helping doctors decide which cancers to approach
more aggressively.
"This is a feature we can find early on in the disease
and it could change the way cancer is treated," said Howard Chang, MD, PhD, a
postdoctoral scholar and lead author of the paper. The work appears in the Jan.
19 edition of Public Library of Science Biology.
The research group, led by Patrick Brown, MD, PhD, professor of biochemistry, took an unusual
approach in finding the telltale genes. In most studies, scientists analyze
tumor samples and look for genes that are more active compared to normal tissue. Such studies have produced long lists of genes
involved in cancer biology but don't provide clues about what role those genes
may be playing.
Chang started from the opposite direction. He knew wound
healing and cancer progression had some similarities, including the growth of
new blood vessels, rearrangement of the molecular matrix around the cells and
changes in how cells attach to each other. "Wound healing is a process that
allows cells to break normal constraints on their growth and cross boundaries.
If a cell can access that program, that's a good environment for cancer," Chang said.
The researchers started by finding which genes are
active in cells exposed to clotted blood as a model of cells in the
wound-healing process. Then Chang and his colleagues looked to see whether those same genes were active in tumor
samples.
The researchers found that prostate and liver cancers always activated
wound-healing genes, while tumors in the breast, colon and prostate were mixed. In
these variable tissues, tumors with active wound-healing genes turned out to be
highly aggressive and were more likely to spread to other tissues.
Chang said assessing wound-healing genes could help doctors choose the best
treatment for a patient. "There are a lot of drugs that work only on
certain type of cancers. If you realize that different drugs work on a specific
abnormality, doctors can match the drug to the problem," he said.
The best-known example of such pharmaceutical
matchmaking is the drug Herceptin, which specifically treats breast cancers with
an active version of the gene Her2/Neu.
Most doctors don't have the ability to screen tumor
samples for active genes, but they routinely test for the presence of proteins
made by genes, as with
Her2/Neu. Julie Sneddon, a biochemistry graduate student and second author on
the paper, has been working on a similar test to identify tumors that churn out
wound-healing proteins.
Chang said the next step is learning how best to treat
tumors that produce these proteins. Because wound healing is a well-understood
process, researchers may be able to disrupt the process and slow the cancer's
spread. "There are drugs coming out that block blood vessel growth, so perhaps those drugs should
be targeted to this population of patients," Chang said.
Additional Stanford researchers who contributed to this
work include postdoctoral scholars Ruchira Sood, PhD, and Jen-Tsan Chi, MD, PhD;
Ash Alizadeh, MD, PhD, a former graduate student; Rob West, MD, PhD, clinical
instructor of pathology; Kelli Montgomery, research associate; and Matt van de Rijn, MD, PhD,
associate professor of pathology.
Source: Stanford School of Medicine News Release, January 12, 2004 (http://mednews.stanford.edu/releases/2004)
Last Editorial Review: 7/7/2004
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