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Cancer survival secrets uncovered

20 August 2008

The research team: Associate Professor Tony Tiganis and Dr Ben Shields.

Monash University researchers have uncovered the role of a family of enzymes in the mutation of benign and less aggressive tumours into potentially fatal cancers in the human body.

The discovery provides valuable insights into how cancer cells develop and mutate, and could ultimately change treatment options for sufferers around the world.

Team leader Associate Professor Tony Tiganis from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology said the work showed that the enzymes known as protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) had a greater role than previously thought in the rate of growth and tumour change over time.

"We already know that PTKs are associated with several types of aggressive cancers, including colon, breast and lung cancers," Associate Professor Tiganis said.

"What we have discovered is that PTKs have an important role to play as cancer cells grow and mutate to become potentially more aggressive tumours."

"The more we can learn about how tumours develop, the more we are able to prevent their growth in the future. There are already drugs that inhibit particular PTKs in the late stages of treatment. Our discovery could change the timing of when and how those or similar drugs are administered."

All cells routinely divide and duplicate during growth. An entire genome is replicated and divides equally into two daughter cells. Sometimes things go wrong.

PTKs normally turn off in the face of compromised DNA replication, but when PTK pathways remain on, unscheduled cell division can take place where cells distribute their DNA unevenly between the two resulting daughter cells. As a result, tumour cells can accumulate or lose genes and chromosomes, and gain a growth and survival advantage.

"We have identified one mechanism by which PTKs may remain activated and allow cancer cells to bypass the molecular ‘warden’ of DNA replication; they may lack a key enzyme called TCPTP," Associate Professor Tiganis said.

The Monash team will now apply their laboratory findings to human cancer samples to see if they contain low levels of TCPTP and hopefully confirm the role of this protein in cancer formation and development.