Posted: 28 February 2011
SINGAPORE: An international team of scientists, including those from the Institute of Medical Biology (IMB) in Singapore, has discovered the reason why a rare skin cancer called multiple self-healing squamous epithelioma (MSSE), heals by itself.
The scientists said understanding how tumours that lack the gene known as TGFBR1 behave will help them predict the clinical effects of drugs that target these cancer-promoting or cancer-inhibiting signals.
But team leader and Executive Director of IMB, Professor Birgit Lane, cautioned that gene is also part of a very important cell signalling system that is essential for many normal processes.
Though it has been implicated in many other cancers before now, she said its function cannot be blocked indiscriminately.
Professor Lane said she hoped the new found knowledge will open a door to new ways of tweaking the cell machinery more selectively in cancer therapy.
MSSE is an extremely rare disease, with only a handful of new cases diagnosed each year.
Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:New breakthrough in skin cancer research
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