Cancer linked to faulty healing

Genes play different roles

Genes that promote wound healing may also help cancer to spread, research has suggested.

A team at Stanford University found that some tumours activate these genes - turning them from a friend to a foe.

They hope their work will lead to new ways to treat the disease, and help doctors decide which cancers to approach more aggressively.

The research is published in the journal Public Library of Science Biology.

It could change the way cancer is treated Dr Howard Chang

Lead researcher Dr Howard Chang said: "This is a feature we can find early on in the disease and it could change the way cancer is treated."

The researchers focused on the process of wound healing because like cancer it allows cells to break the normal constraints on their growth.

Both trigger the growth of new blood vessels, change the composition of the material around cells, and alter the way cells attach to each other.

The Stanford team identified genes involved in wound healing by analysing cells exposed to clotted blood to trigger the process.

They then looked to see if the same genes were active in tumour samples.

The researchers found that prostate and liver cancers always activated wound-healing genes, while tumours in the breast, colon and prostate were mixed.

In these variable tissues, tumours with active wound-healing genes turned out to be highly aggressive and were more likely to spread to other tissues.

Tailored approach

Dr Chang said assessing wound-healing genes could help doctors choose the best treatment for a patient.

He said: "There are a lot of drugs that work only on certain type of cancers.

"If you realize that different drugs work on a specific abnormality, doctors can match the drug to the problem."

Most doctors do not have the ability to screen tumour samples for active genes, but they routinely test for the presence of proteins made by genes.

Dr Chang said the next step was learning how best to treat tumours that produce these proteins.

Because wound healing is a well-understood process, researchers may be able to disrupt the process and slow the cancer's spread.

He said: "There are drugs coming out that block blood vessel growth, so perhaps those drugs should be targeted to this population of patients."

Henry Scowcroft, of Cancer Research UK, said the finding was interesting.

He said: "Scientists have known for some time that the processes involved in wound healing, such as angiogenesis, are also be involved in the spread of cancer around the body. This study supports these ideas.

"As well as increasing our understanding of the fundamental processes involved in the spread of cancer, this work may eventually lead to the identification of potential new targets for anti-cancer drugs."