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Article: DORMANT CANCER CELLS RELY ON CELLULAR SELF-CANNIBALIZATION TO SURVIVE
- Article from:
- US Fed News Service, Including US State News
- Article date:
- December 31, 2008
CopyrightCopyright © HT Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The University of Texas System of MD Anderson Cancer Center issued the following news release:
A single tumor-suppressing gene is a key to understanding, and perhaps killing, dormant ovarian cancer cells that persist after initial treatment only to reawaken years later, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the December Journal of Clinical Investigation.
The team found that expression of a gene called ARHI acts as a switch for autophagy, or self-cannibalization, in ovarian cancer cells. Often a mechanism for cancer cell death, in this case "self-eating" acts as a survival mechanism for dormant cancer cells.
"Prolonged autophagy is lethal to cancer ...