Universal cancer marker shows new treatment options
>> 20101023
A single screening method that can force a wide range of cancers to reveal themselves has been discovered. The universal cancer marker could help doctors find and treat tumours, and provide surgeons with a "dotted line" to cut them out.
The key to the technique is the receptor for follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). This receptor – typically involved in controlling women's reproductive cycles – appears in unusually large amounts in prostate tumours. So Aurelian Radu at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and colleagues looked for it in 1336 human tumour samples, including prostate, breast, lung and liver cancers.
The group applied colour-labelled antibodies for the FSH receptor to the samples. They found that in every sample, the antibodies bound to blood vessels around the periphery of the tumour.
Radu doesn't yet know why tumour blood vessels express the receptor, though he thinks it might play a role in the formation of new vessels.
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