New 'evolved' protein therapy to stop cancer growth

Researchers from Stanford has created an "evolved" protein therapy that might stop cancer from spreading in body.

According to the team of Stanford researchers the new protein therapy disrupts the process that causes cancer cells to break away from original tumor sites, travel through the blood stream and start aggressive new growths elsewhere in the body.

Jennifer Cochran, an associate professor of bioengineering who describes a new therapeutic approach in Nature Chemical Biology , said that the majority of patients who succumbed to cancer fell prey to metastatic forms of the disease.

The Stanford team seeks to stop metastasis, without side effects, by preventing two proteins namely Axl and Gas6 from interacting to initiate the spread of cancer.

The research showed that when two Gas6 proteins linked with two Axls, the signals that were generated enabled cancer cells to leave the original tumor site, migrate to other parts of the body and form new cancer nodules.

Professor Amato Giaccia, who heads the Radiation Biology Program in Stanford's Cancer Center, said that this was a very promising therapy that appeared to be effective and non-toxic in pre-clinical experiments and it could open up a new approach to cancer treatment.