Preventing the Spread of Cancer Cells

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College claim to have found the potential for a new class of anti-cancer agents through macroketone. The researchers published their findings in the online edition of the journal Nature. They have found that these new anti-cancer agents can stop the migration of metastatic tumor cells and therefore the spread of cancer.

The specific study involved implanting cancer cells into populations of mice and then treating them with small molecules called marcoketone. They found that the treated mice with cancer lived to a full life span in contrast with the control group which all died from metastasis. Even in mice that had the marcoketone introduced a week after the implantation of cancer still had an 80% block of metastasis. The researches are confident that this study is indicative of a new field of cancer treatment that is developing to specifically stop cancer metastasis. Dr. Haung, leading the research team at Weill Cornell, says, "More than 90 percent of cancer patients die because their cancer has spread, so we desperately need a way to stop this metastasis." Macroketone was developed from migrastatin, a natural substance that was isolated from Streptomyces bacteria by Japanese researchers. The researchers had noted that migrastatin had a weak inhibitory effect on the migration of tumor cells. Dr. Huang and his team took this substance and made synthetic versions that are a "thousand-fold more potent" than the migrastatin original.

The mechanism of macroketone is that it targets an actin cytoskelatal protein known as fascin which is needed for cell movement. Fascin bundles actin filaments together in order to make a kind of "foot" that can be used by a cancer cell to leave a primary tumor. The macroketone latches onto fascin and prevents actin fibers from adhering to one another which prevents this cell movement altogether. It is important to note that this treatment did not stop cancer cells from growing or forming tumors but it did prevent the spread of the cancer. The research team hopes that macroketone can be used in conjunction with another drug that would act on tumor cell growth. Dr. Huang also said about the minimal side effects that, "fascin is overexpressed in metastatic tumor cells but is only expressed at a very low level in normal epithelial cells, so a treatment that attacks fascin will have comparatively little effect on normal cells -- unlike traditional chemotherapy which attacks all dividing cells."

I found this article to be interesting because of the disease that was being discussed: cancer. Because cancer is such a deadly and widespread disease, there is a large amount of interest in investing time and money into the research of this disease. This leads to new discoveries being made everyday about the nature of cancer and the strides made in how to treat this disease. I also enjoyed the article because it dealt with taking a new perspective on cancer treatment. Instead of trying to treat tumorous tissue or individual tumors, the research team is attempting to control the cancer by not letting it spread through the body. Any new approaches to treating cancer are a step in the right direction to learn more about this disease.

Article Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/185482.php
Alexander J. Quante '13 -- VTPP 434