Scientists have discovered a protein found in 11 types of common cancers such as breast, prostrate, lung, liver, ovaries and colon. This protein is called a FSH receptor, usually this receives signals from the follicle stimulating hormone which plays a role in reproduction and in blood vessel growth.
This protein could be used by injecting it into the blood stream and as it travels through the bloodstream it will stick to cancerous tumors and will light up on an X-Ray.
This protein was discovered by researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The used mice to put the receptor's cancer-detecting potential to the test.They engineered a molecule that would bind only to FSH receptor, and coupled that molecule with gold particles that can be seen on an X-ray. They found that the gold particles only stuck to blood vessels of cancerous tissues and not normal tissues.
The FSH receptor can not only help is detecting and diagnosing cancer but also can provide a target for cancer killing drugs. The reason as to why this marker works and how it works is still unknown but further research is still being done and the researchers are now trying to achieve the same results in humans.
Cancer research for a development of a new/more effective treatment is still in it's infancy. Although there have been a lot of advancements in the field, there is so much more to be discovered. It's great to hear there is some progression in the field because treatment for cancer today is very harmful to a person. Its great that they found a marker to identify cancerous tumors just by using an x-ray. The conclucion they came up with in this experiment with the mice is that the FSH receptor is selectively expressed on the surface of the blood vessels of a wide range of tumors (http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1001283). This could help with diagnosing cancer, maybe allow doctors to catch cancer at the earlier stages. It would be great if they could develop a drug that targets just cancerous tumors because treatments today, like Chemotherapy, help to destroy cancerous cells, but it also can destroy good cells in our bodies. The overall effects of chemotherapy and radiation takes a large toll on a person's body. So I hope they can use this information they found and be able to develop a treatment with less side effects for a person.
ReplyDeleteI think it is great that there is alot of progress in the field of cancer studies. With such new discoveries and medicine many individuals can be treated very soon at earlier stages of cancer. Also, now they can stop those 11 cancers from even metastisizing, based on the protein they found. Additionally, radiation therapy harms the human body while it is also fighting the bad cells. with this protein they can make new drugs, which will hopefully have less side-effects.
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