Researchers crack part of common cancer mutation riddle, study
says Posted May 17, 2012on: Researchers have identified a
compound that could correct a mutation and stop cancer from
spreading — a development that could eventually be used to treat
tens of thousands of cancer patients in the United States each
year. In a study published today in the journal Cancer Cell,
four scientists from the Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the
Institute for Advanced Study laid out their work involving a
compound that corrects a mutation in the valuable p53 protein —
“a kind of common denominator” in a wide ranger of cancers,
including ovarian, pancreatic, breast, lung, esophageal and
others. The p53 protein is a kind of intracellular security
force that cracks down on cells when they go rogue, but which is
hijacked by cancer, allowing malignant cells to spread. The
compounds tested — called thiosemicarbazones — have been
intermittently investigated as cancer-fighters for decades, but
are only now being singled out as a tre