http://www.thewest.com.au/20060610/n...sto134389.html
Found: the gene that kills cancer
WA researchers have stumbled on a new "his and hers" cancer gene which they say could prove to be a miraculous breakthrough in the treatment of breast and prostate cancer.
Doctors were surprised to discover that the gene, which they found while trolling through a huge gene library, could shut down oestrogen in breast cancer cells and testosterone in prostate cancer cells.
They said because cancer cells depended on these hormones to survive, targeting drugs specifically at those genes could be a short-cut to treating patients more effectively and with fewer side-effects.
Breast and prostate cancer kills about 2500 men and women in Australia every year.
Revealing their discovery yesterday, excited researchers at the WA Institute for Medical Research's cancer medicine laboratory said it was likely to lead to a breakthrough in breast and prostate cancer treatment.
Apart from offering a clear way to tailor drug treatments for these cancers, the gene, known as SLIRP, had other strings to its bow, including playing a role in energy metabolism. This could pave the way for new methods of treating people who were obese or had diabetes.
Lead researcher Professor Peter Leedman, who has worked on the project for several years with American researcher Professor Bert O'Malley from the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, said the findings marked an important step in the battle against cancer. "Many cancers depend on hormones to stay alive so if we can use SLIRP to block the hormones we may be able to help stop those diseases in their tracks," Professor Leedman said.
"If we can unravel how SLIRP works to turn down the hormone action in cancer cells we could potentially develop so-called smart drugs that zoom in on the gene.
"The benefit is that smart drugs can mean fewer nasty side-effects for patients, as they target specific genes, not entire areas of the body."
Professor Leedman said the gene could also be used to create blood tests to diagnose breast and prostate cancer earlier and improve survival rates. He said the discovery came at an important time because the new wave of therapies for cancer was going to be targeted rather than using the blanket approach of the past. "This new gene is a powerful agent and the good thing is that it's a pretty small molecule," he said. "We're actively pursuing a three-dimensional structure of it and when we have that we can start to tweak its function, like a lock and key.
"One of the other things we're very excited about is that SLIRP can also tell us just by its presence or absence in breast, prostate, colon and melanoma cancers how patients are going to respond to drugs like tamoxifen.
Linear Mode
