Route To Thwarting Skin Cancer

Joerg Huelsken and colleagues studied this type of skin cancer in mice. They found that transplanting material derived from the cancer stem cells to a cancer-free mouse caused identical cancer development in the recipient. And they pinpoint a protein known as beta-catenin as being crucial for sustaining these cancer stem cells - in genetically engineered animals without the protein - the tumours shrink because there is no longer a signal to tell the cells to keep renewing themselves.

The team's discovery may open up a possible route to treating this type of skin cancer in humans. They show that squamous cell carcinomas - the human equivalent of the mouse tumours - also rely on beta-catenin. As the stem cells responsible for renewing normal skin do not depend on beta-catenin, targeting this molecule could help wipe out the cancer stem cells in a malignant tumour.

CONTACT

Joerg Huelsken (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland)
E-mail: joerg.huelsken@epfl.ch

(C) Nature press release.

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