Anti-Cancer Research
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering has discovered a new type of protein, RhoJ, that is responsible for the spread of blood vessels in cancerous areas.
The school announced that a type of protein called RhoJ, generated only in cancerous blood cells, was critically responsible for the spread of blood vessels inside cancerous areas.
Blood vessels in cancer cells carry nutrition and oxygen to cancer cells and play a critical role in spreading cancer throughout the human body. If the flow of blood to cancer cells can be halted, the spread of cancer cells can be stopped, and the cancer cells themselves will die.
A study on laboratory rats showed that those that had the RhoJ protein removed showed significant reduction in the spread of cancer cells in breast cancer, lung cancer, and skin cancer.
Dr. Ra Sun-yeong from Yeonsei University’s Center for Cancer said, “This preliminary report is a credible point for developing real medicine. But we need more research in this area." She went on to add, “It is intriguing, even uplifting from a clinician’s perspective, that a new study has been found that enables target double results with one medicine.”
This study was published in the international cancer society journal Cancer Cell.