- Researchers at the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute in Glasgow have identified new potential treatments to suppress the growth of bowel and liver cancers.
- Their study focused on genetic errors that hijack the WNT pathway, a crucial signalling system that regulates cell growth in the body.
- A protein called nucleophosmin (NPM1) was found to be highly elevated in bowel cancer and certain liver cancers due to these genetic faults.
- Blocking NPM1, which is not essential for healthy adult tissues, was shown to hinder cancer cells' ability to produce proteins, thereby activating a tumour suppressor and preventing growth.
- This breakthrough, published in Nature Genetics, offers a promising new approach for treating these hard-to-treat cancers, particularly relevant given Scotland's high rates of bowel and liver cancer.
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