New Strategy Against Cancer Discovered

Related Link » New attack on cancer forces cells to grow old and die
“(Reuters) - Instead of killing off cancer cells with toxic drugs, scientists have discovered a molecular pathway that forces them to grow old and die, they said on Wednesday. Cancer cells spread and grow because they can divide indefinitely. But a study in mice showed that blocking a cancer-causing gene called Skp2 forced cancer cells to go through an aging process known as senescence — the same process involved in ridding the body of cells damaged by sunlight. If you block Skp2 in cancer cells, this process is triggered, Pier Paolo Pandolfi of Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues reported in the journal Nature.
[…]
[Pandolfi] said this Skp2-related aging pathway appears to be active in cancer, and not other cells. ‘We have no intention of aging the patient. But only the cancer’, he said.”
— Julie Steenhuysen, March 18, 2010 (REUTERS)

Malignant breast cancer cells metastasized to the liver are seen in this undated handout photo.
Credit: Reuters/National Cancer Institute/Handout

This sounds very promising.

Post #1,163 New Strategy Against Cancer Discovered