More Potential Keys to Cancer

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ScienceDaily brings news of more potentially common biomechanisms of cancer: "The gene, USP22, encodes an enzyme that appears to be crucial for controlling large scale changes in gene expression, one of the hallmarks of cancer cells. ... USP22 was part of a group of 11 genes that are overexpressed in a variety of cancers and that overexpression of USP22 predicts which tumors can go on to spread elsewhere in the body. This group of genes is collectively called the 'cancer stem cell signature.' ... Since USP22 is an enzyme, the type of protein that is easiest to target with drugs, our new findings may help extend these earlier discoveries to the point where therapeutics can be developed. There are already drugs being used in cancer patients that attack other enzymes in this pathway, and there are companies interested in extending this to find USP22 inhibitors." If it turns out that less than 20 key mechanisms can be used to shut down 80% of cancers, few of you reading this today will ever suffer from cancer. That is one of the many promises of the biotechnology revolution: knowledge is power.

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080117134229.htm