Prognostic enzyme for nasopharyngeal cancer identified
- From: Matti Narkia <mna@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:48:23 +0300
"Mayo Clinic in Rochester
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Mayo Clinic Cancer Center -- A Discovery That May Lessen A
Health Disparity
Prognostic enzyme for nasopharyngeal cancer identified
LOS ANGELES -- Mayo Clinic Cancer Center scientists, in
collaboration with Chinese researchers, have isolated an enzyme
that could be used to predict survival and recurrence rates for
nasopharyngeal cancer -- a common cancer affecting people from
Southeast Asia. Results of the study were presented today by
lead author Jin-Ping Lai, M.D., Ph.D., at the American
Association for Cancer Research annual meeting.
Nasopharyngeal cancer disproportionately affects people living
in southern China and surrounding areas, as well as recent
Southeast Asian immigrants to the United States, says the
American Cancer Society. It also is common in Alaska Natives
and is 50 percent more likely to occur in blacks than in
whites.
SULF2, a recently identified heparin-degrading endosulfatase,
appears to be significantly overexpressed in nasopharyngeal
cancers, providing hope of the eventual ability to predict
recurrence and subsequent prognosis after radiation therapy,
the standard treatment for nasopharyngeal cancer.
The researchers examined tumor tissue from 55 patients with
squamous cell carcinoma of the nasopharynx, otherwise known as
nasopharyngeal cancer. All patients had been treated by
radiation therapy and follow-up was conducted for 10 years. The
investigators found that rates of early recurrence (within five
years) were significantly higher for individuals with high
levels of SULF2 in the tumor (expressed in more than 10 percent
of cancer cells). These same individuals were much more likely
to die within 10 years.
"Learning more about the way a specific type of cancer
develops, and what proteins it produces as it grows, helps us
find better ways to treat that cancer," said Dr. Lai, who is a
cancer researcher at Mayo Clinic with background as an
otolaryngologist. "With nasopharyngeal cancer, we think this
new enzyme may help solve the puzzle."
Locating the enzyme also allowed Dr. Lai and his colleagues to
make the antibody for SULF2, which is a step leading to an
effective treatment for nasopharyngeal cancer. SULF2 also
appears to be a factor in liver cancer, a link under
investigation by the Mayo researchers.
"We continue to look for ways to combat health disparities in
the United States and throughout the world," said Lewis
Roberts, M.B.Ch.B., Ph.D., the study's principal investigator
and a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic. "Our research into
SULF2 suggests a number of promising possibilities for the
development of more effective treatments for cancer."
Catherine Moser of Mayo Clinic also assisted in the research.
Collaborators included Su-Ping Zhao, M.D., Ph.D., and Jian-Yun
Xiao, M.D., from Xiang Ya Hospital, Central South University,
Changsha, Hunan, People's Republic of China. The research was
supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of
Health, The Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation, and by the
Miles and Shirley Fiterman Center for Digestive Diseases at
Mayo Clinic.
For more cancer research information, visit
http://cancercenter.mayo.edu, and for information on the
treatment of nasal cancers at Mayo Clinic, visit
www.mayoclinic.org/nasal-paranasal-tumors.
Check our Web site at www.mayoclinic.org for updates on Mayo
research being presented at the AACR meetings."
Excerpted from
Mayo Clinic Cancer Center -- A Discovery That May Lessen A Health
Disparity
<http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2007-rst/4009.html>
--
Matti Narkia
.
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