New, "smart" therapies for metastatic breast and ovarian cancers may now be possible thanks to researchers in British Columbia, who say they have discovered a key cancer protein.
University of British Columbia researchers, along with cancer scientists, have pinpointed a protein called podocalyxin, which researchers believe is an accurate predictor of metastatic cancer -- the kind of invasive cancer that spreads from its original site to other parts of the body.
The findings were recently published online by the Public Library of Science.
Researchers say the culprit was hiding in plain sight on the surface of tumour cells.
"It's pretty exciting," Dr. Kelly McNagny, a stem cell expert with the UBC Biomedical Research Centre, told Â鶹´«Ã½net.
"The nice thing about it is, since it's on the surface of cells, it actually is something that we can target antibodies to, or find a way to prevent its action."
McNagny, a co-senior investigator of the study, said the finding is a "small but important step" to developing so-called "smart" molecules to block the protein's function.
The researchers say information from this discovery may speed development of new therapies to within 10 years.
"The ultimate goal is to generate new targeted, non-toxic treatments," added Calvin Roskelley, an associate professor of cellular and physiological science, which is "very different from the standard 'slash and burn' chemotherapy."
Two years ago, UBC discovered that this same protein was an accurate predictor of breast cancer.
Last year more than 22,000 women were diagnosed with breast cancer and 5,300 died of it, according to data from the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.
The Canadian Cancer Society estimates that approximately 2,300 new cases of ovarian cancer were diagnosed and about 1,600 women died from the disease in 2006.
