Swiss researchers may have discovered a master switch for cancer metastasis, a process that forms secondary tumors and is the leading cause of death among cancer patients.
Their findings, published in the journal Cancer Cell, detail a transcription factor called Sox4 and its role during epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a multistage process central to metastasis that involves the transformation of inactive, specialized cells into wandering, invasive, and unspecialized cells. The molecular breakdown of how EMT works is still poorly understood.
Researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland found that Sox4 promotes the expression of the enzyme Ezh2, a methyltransferase, which regulates the packaging of genetic material, its readability and gene expression.
When genetic information is changed, cell function and behavior is reprogrammed--a process that often happens during metastasis. Changes in gene expression also occur in patients with malignant cancer. The researchers concluded that the expression of Ezh2-regulated genes is predictive for patient survival in metastatic cancer.
The findings indicate a possible new way of treating metastatic cancer--that inhibiting the transcription factor Sox4, particularly the methyltransferase Ezh2, could stop metastasis in cancer patients.
The team is working on developing drugs with the hopes of eventually advancing them to clinical trials to use in humans. The research was conducted under the Swiss SystemsX.ch RTD program.
- read the press release
- here's the study abstract