Another reason to never give up hope:

coloCan
coloCan Member Posts: 1,944 Member
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
This date, 2/15, Medicalnewstoday.com cites an article to be published in Nature Cell Biology: "Protein That Triggers Cancer Spread Discovered", about a protein called disabled-2(Dab2) that supposedly switches on the process that releases cancer cells from original tumor, allowing spread and development of new tumors(metastasis)elsewhere in the body. This gives scientists and researchers another possible avenue to defeat cancer.
I subscribe to numerous medical research websites and there are so many people/insitutions working to find a cure for cancer (of course same applies to other diseases but my focus since Dx has been cancer in general, colorectal in particular). One must never give up hope....Steve

Comments

  • emrose
    emrose Member Posts: 136
    #2
    Hopeful
    Thank you Steve. It's definitely reassuring to know all the work that is being done to find a cure.
  • fedester
    fedester Member Posts: 753 Member
    #3
    can't give up
    steve,
    you are right, there is so much being done to beat this beast.
    i get my inspiration from my family here and my sister in law. she is a 3 time survivor(2 times breast)(1 time retall) and she keeps on going.
    be well
    never,ever give up!!
    bruce
  • Mchapp
    Mchapp Member Posts: 95
    #4
    fedester said:

    can't give up
    steve,
    you are right, there is so much being done to beat this beast.
    i get my inspiration from my family here and my sister in law. she is a 3 time survivor(2 times breast)(1 time retall) and she keeps on going.
    be well
    never,ever give up!!
    bruce

    Testing
    Steve,
    Do you know or did the article say how they test for this protein? Blood work - testing the sample?
    Thank you for sharing
    Michelle
  • coloCan
    coloCan Member Posts: 1,944 Member
    #5
    Mchapp said:

    Testing
    Steve,
    Do you know or did the article say how they test for this protein? Blood work - testing the sample?
    Thank you for sharing
    Michelle

    , MichelleIf I understand it correctly, let me quote some first:
    "The process called epithelial-mesenchymal transdifferientation(EMT)has been known to play a role in releasing cells (epithelial cells)on the surface of the solid tumor and transforming them into transient mesenchymal cell:cells with the ability to start to grow a new tumor.

    "This is often the fatal process in breast, pancreatic and colon-rectal cancers."........

    Researchers "began by working backwards from EMT to find its trigger.

    "The researchersa found that a compound called transforminbg growth factor-B(B stands for a symbol not a my keypad)(TGF-B)triggers the formation of the Dab2 protein. It was this protein,Dab2, that activated the EMT process."

    Michelle:I don't think there is a blood test for an individual (or any other test for that matter)to test for this protein as it should be in all colo-rectal cancers, if I understand article correctly. Its not like testing for KRAS or BRAF, etc.
    The article further states:
    "The research group studied the biological processes that initiated the cancer spread by using cancer cells in animal models........"

    "If we can understand the signaling pathway for modulating EMT, then we can design drugs to delay or halt EMT cells and control tumor progession," stated the researcher.

    Bottom line here I think is the last quoted sentence.(Articles can be hard to understand due to medical/technical terminology tho written for us laypeople)

    Hope this helps.........Steve
  • tootsie1
    tootsie1 Member Posts: 5,044 Member
    #6
    That's great
    That's great news! Thank you for sharing!

    *hugs*
    Gail

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