Controlling the Spread of Cancer

Scientists have revealed a key molecule in breast and lung cancer cells that can help switch off the cancers’ ability to spread around the body. The researchers at Imperial College London (ICL) found that the MARK4 protein in breast and lung cancer cells enables them to break free and move into the blood stream; although uncertainty remains as to how this happens, one theory is that the protein affects the cell’s internal scaffolding, enabling it to move more easily.

Having found that the molecule miR-515-5p helped to silence, or switch off, the gene that produces MARK4, further studies were able to establish that patients with breast and lung cancers whose tumours had low amounts of these silencer molecules - or high amounts of MARK4 - had lower survival rates.

Current investigations are centred on whether either the MARK4 gene or the silencer molecule could be targeted with drugs, or whether these molecules could be used to develop a test to indicate whether a patient's cancer is likely to spread.

Professor Justin Stebbing, senior author of the study* from the Department of Surgery and Cancer at ICL said: "In our work we have shown that this silencer molecule is important in the spread of cancer. This is very early stage research, so we now need more studies to find out more about this molecule and if it is present in other types of cancer.”

Dr Olivier Pardo, lead author of the paper, also from the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial, added: “Our work also identified that MARK4 enables breast and lung cancer cells to both divide and invade other parts of the body. These findings could have profound implications for treating breast and lung cancers, two of the biggest cancer killers worldwide.”

The study was supported by the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, the Medical Research Council, Action Against Cancer and the Cancer Treatment and Research Trust

*Published in EMBO Reports