Why cancer cells don’t commit suicide

TORONTO - New research at a Canadian university has found clues as to why cancer cells don’t die.

When cells experience DNA damage, they try to repair it, the research says. But if that fails, the damaged cells are supposed to self-destruct through a process called apoptosis.

The cancer research at the University of Western at Hamilton near here has now identified a protein that regulates apoptosis. It has implications for both the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, the university says in a statement.

“The protein we have identified, RanBPM, is directly involved in activating apoptosis,” says researcher Caroline Schild-Poulter.

“One of the hallmarks of cancer is that the cells don’t initiate apoptosis despite having defects in their genetic material. In other words, the damaged cells do not commit suicide, and this develops into cancer,” she says.

“Failure to activate apoptosis also makes it difficult to cure cancer. You cannot kill these cells by causing DNA damage to them using chemotherapy or radiation, because these cells resist dying,” the researcher adds.

According to Schild-Poulter, RanBPM can be targeted to re-activate apoptosis for killing cancer cells. The protein may also be a marker used to predict whether a tumour will go on to become malignant.

But more research is needed to fully understand how this protein functions, she says.

Her research has been published online in the journal Molecular Cancer Research.