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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- New research sheds light on the development of colon cancer, identifying a possible target to stop colon cancer growth. The study pinpoints a protein within colon polyps that could help tumors develop.
Colon cancer is one of the most common cancers in both men and women. Studies have shown that there are several factors that contribute to the development of colon cancer including a high fat, red-meat diet, obesity and lack of vegetables and fiber in the diet. But scientists dont understand what causes some people to develop colon cancer while others do not.
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Its estimated up to 50 percent of the population will have whats called an adenomatous polyp, but only in a few percent will this polyp progress to cancer. In this new study, researchers discovered that PROX1 -- a protein that, in embryos, controls formation of normal organs -- becomes abnormally overproduced at early states of cancer development. PROX1 allows cancer cells to grow even with surrounding normal tissues.
Study authors say when you remove PROX1 from cancer cells, it reverses their malignant behavior. They feel PROX1 is a promising target for the development of future treatments for colon cancer.
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SOURCE: Cancer Cell, published online May 5, 2008
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