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The researchers have looked at prostate cancer but believe that the new knowledge can also be applied to other forms of cancer in the future. Stock Photography.
1 of 2Photo: Dan Hansson / SvD / TT
A new discovery gives hope of being able to more quickly and in a simpler way determine who is at risk of developing serious prostate cancer.
– It’s like opening a completely new window, says Maréne Landström, professor at Umeå University.
In Sweden, more than 10,000 cases of prostate cancer are discovered every year. Researchers at Umeå and Uppsala University have made new findings that may be important for the treatment of prostate cancer in the future – and hopefully other cancers.
Researchers have discovered a new function for a protein called TbRI (transforming growth factor beta type I receptor). It is already known that the protein is important for the development of cancer.
– What we have found now is that TbRI interacts with another important cancer protein called Aurora kinase B (AURKB), says Maréne Landström, professor of pathology at Umeå University.
– It has not previously been described that the receptor is directly involved in the growth of the cancer cells themselves.
Faster treatment
The two proteins, TbRI and AURKB, together form a so-called protein complex. In the study, which was presented in the journal EBioMedicine, the researchers used a specific method to measure and find significantly more protein complexes in the serious forms of prostate cancer.
The new knowledge gives hope of being able to identify the men who are at risk of developing serious cancer earlier than they do today – and thus offer treatment faster.
– It’s like opening a whole new window. Here we see something that we did not know before and now we will try to understand what it means purely tumor biologically but also how it can be of clinical benefit to the patient with cancer, says Maréne Landström.
More cancers
Follow-up studies will be done and it is planned to develop a kit that can be useful in healthcare in the future.
– Today there are many men who do not know how to treat. The kit will not respond, but it will be able to answer if this man is at risk of a serious cancer.
The researchers have looked at prostate cancer but believe that the new knowledge can also be applied to other forms of cancer.
– Partly for breast cancer but also lung cancer and kidney cancer, says Maréne Landström.
Facts
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is Sweden’s most common form of cancer. The disease mainly affects older men, about half are over 70 years old. Every year, about 10,000 new cases are discovered, making the disease the most common form of cancer in men.
Sometimes the disease is hereditary but for the most part the cause is unclear.
Prostate cancer means that a cancerous tumor has formed. At first, it grows only inside the prostate gland and is not noticeable. It can take up to 10 to 15 years for the tumor to spread or cause symptoms.
Symptoms that can indicate prostate cancer are frequent urination, that the urine is delayed when you want to urinate, that the urine stream is weak and that there is blood in the urine.
Prostate cancer that has spread can also cause other symptoms.
Source: Cancer Foundation, 1177.se
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