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Tuesday November 3 3:47 PM EDT
Scientists Find Possible ''Malignancy Gene''
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A ''malignancy gene'' found in breast, liver, colon and other tumors but not in healthy tissue may offer a new way to diagnose and treat cancer, scientists said Tuesday.
The gene, which has been named ''MAG'' for malignancy-associated gene, may actually cause cancer to spread, Dr. Julia Ljubimova and colleagues at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles said.
''We feel this gene may 'turn on' the process of malignancy,'' Ljubimova, who reported the findings in the journal Cancer Research, said in a statement.
The MAG gene was found in 90 percent of 51 tissue samples from premalignant and malignant tumors.
Her team is racing to sequence the gene -- to catalog all of its components and the order they are in. Once that is done, they hope work can begin on finding ways to block its action, either with drugs or genetic engineering.
If the gene does turn on the process of spreading, it could make the difference between a minor tumor and a deadly cancer.
''Most patients die from metastasis or invasion,'' Ljubimova said. ''If, using antisense technology, the gene could be deactivated, a tumor cell's blueprint for rampant growth might be destroyed and the cancer stopped before it spread.''
Antisense technology basically mimics the DNA of an undesirable gene, canceling out its action.
The Cedars-Sinai team also found MAG being expressed, or generated, in the tissues of developing fetuses. That could mean the gene is associated with cell growth -- and it is out-of control cell growth that marks cancer.
Ljubimova says perhaps the MAG gene is active in growing and developing fetuses but normally turned off in mature cells.
Many genes have been associated with cancer. Some have a role in repairing defective DNA, such as ''p53'', while others mark an inherited fault, like the ''BRCA1'' breast cancer gene.
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