Under stress from chemotherapy or radiation, some cancer cells dodge death by consuming a bit of themselves, allowing them to essentially sleep through treatment and later awaken as tougher, resistant disease. [s]Health Canal[/s] reports that researchers at the [b]University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre[/b], publishing in [s]Cell[/s], found that interfering with a single cancer-promoting protein and its receptor can turn this resistance mechanism into lethal, runaway self-cannibalisation. 'Prolactin is a potent growth factor for many types of cancers, including ovarian cancer,' said senior author prof Anil Sood. 'When we block prolactin signalling, it sets off a chain of downstream events that result in cell death by autophagy.' 'Our findings provide a clinical rationale for blocking prolactin and its receptor and for using prolong autophagy as an alternative strategy for treating cancers,' said Yunfei Wen, instructor of Gynaecologic Oncology.
[link url=http://www.healthcanal.com/cancers/49475-jamming-a-protein-signal-forces-cancer-cells-to-devour-themselves.html]Full Health Canal report [/link]
[link url=http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247%2814%2900187-9]Cell full study[/link]