Women Cancer Health Treatment

Osteosarcoma is a cancer of bone that strikes about 900 people in the US each year. he discovery of a gene called MET may explain the development of osteosarcoma, a bone cancer found mainly in adolescents, according to a team of Italian scientists. Most of these are adolescents. Although patients are potentially curable with surgery, they need additional treatment with chemotherapy to ensure the best outcome. The gene will also provide a target for researchers looking for treatments or a cure for this disease.

In the first part of the study the researchers grew normal bone cells, called osteoblasts, in test tube cultures. After around 40-60 days, they took away cells that looked cancerous and put them in mice to see whether they would form cancers. Then they tried to reverse these changes by blocking the MET-produced receptor.

They found that the cells with the extra MET genes started growing more actively. The cells also developed other genetic abnormalities that are typically seen in cancers. Next, the researchers injected the transformed cells into mice.
In about 2 months, tumors began to form, indicating that the injected cells were like osteosarcomas. Perhaps the most important part of the test tube experiments happened when the researchers blocked the receptors produced by the MET gene. That was like throwing the process in reverse. Once the receptors were blocked, the cancer cells reverted back to normal.

This study shows that, at least in osteosarcoma, just one change — overactivity of the MET gene — can lead to many other genetic changes. This means that just one genetic abnormality in a cell can lead to transformation of that cell into a cancer. Although these experiments dealt only with osteosarcoma, according to the researchers, this situation is likely to be found in other types of cancer as well.

Even more important is the discovery that the genetic abnormalities formed as the cells became cancerous can be reversed by blocking the MET receptors. This means, as the researchers suggested, that this receptor could be a good target for anti-cancer drugs. If drugs can be developed to block this receptor, they might prove to be effective treatments for osteosarcoma and perhaps, other cancers.

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Adapted from Yahoo! News