3 minute read
the research, published in nature communications , focused on melanoma, a form of cancer that can usually be cured if it is detected early enough. if skin cancer cells have a chance to break away from the original tumour and move to other areas of the body, however, it becomes much more difficult to treat.
“we’re still not targeting the secondary disease enough in the clinic and i think we need to change this,” said victoria sanz-moreno , lead author of the study at barts cancer institute, queen mary university of london. “in our lab, we want to understand: what are the characteristics of cells that are able to metastasize? what are their weaknesses? and how do we target them?”
an estimated 9,000 canadians were diagnosed with melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, in 2022, according to the canadian cancer society . the disease, which originates in the skin’s melanocyte cells, can lead to cancerous tumours capable of destroying surrounding tissue and spreading to other parts of the body. roughly 1,200 canadians were projected to die from the disease in 2022, with 54 per cent of diagnoses and 64 per cent of deaths occurring in men.
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“these metastatic cells are rewiring themselves to be very efficient,” said eva crosas-molist , researcher at barts cancer centre and first author on the paper. “they only need low levels of energy to move, which helps them to survive in the potentially stressful environments they are migrating to, where there may be a lack of nutrients or oxygen.”
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dave yasvinski is a writer with healthing.ca
