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Secret of deceptive cancer cells uncovered

Fighting cancerAustralian researchers have discovered a dangerous molecule which convinces the body that cancer cells aren’t a threat.

With this mystery uncovered, researchers can now test new treatments that interrupt this deadly deception.

The research was conducted primarily in the Cellular Immunology Laboratory at Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, with researchers working to investigate why the body is ‘fooled’ into ignoring cancer cells.

Typically, when a cell becomes infected or damaged, it loses its surface molecules which are our body’s marker for ‘safe’ or natural cells. When there are no surface molecules to bind to, our body’s biological security team identifies the cell as dangerous.

But the team at Peter Mac, led by Dr Dan Andrews and Professor Mark Smyth, found that cancer cells can imitate the expression of normal surface molecules with a molecule called H2-M3. Continue reading “Secret of deceptive cancer cells uncovered”