National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) researchers have found that stimulating activity of a certain gene might suppress the ability of prostate cancer to spread to the bones, a finding they said could lead to new medicines.
Chuu Chih-pin (褚志斌), an associate researcher at the NHRI’s Institute of Cellular and System Medicine, said in a statement on Friday that the team’s research focused on the role of the ROR2 gene, which is involved in the chemical signaling that regulates cellular activity.
Prostate cancer is the second-most common cancer among men globally and the sixth-most common cancer in Taiwan, Chuu said.
Photo: Wu Liang-yi, Taipei Times
Many cases are detected early, but for cancers that have already spread, the only treatment available is hormone therapy, which in 95 percent of cases fails to prevent a recurrence within one to three years, he said.
The NHRI team used in vitro and mouse-based experiments to study how prostate cancer spreads in bone marrow, which, along with the lymph nodes, is one of the most common sites of metastasis, Chuu said.
The team first observed that ROR2 levels were significantly lower in metastatic tumors compared with the primary tumor in the prostate or in normal prostate tissue, he said.
In a follow-up experiment, the team artificially elevated levels of ROR2, and discovered that this suppressed the migration and invasion of several types of cancer cells, Chuu said.
Although there are no medicines on the market to stimulate ROR2 expression, earlier research by the team found that caffeic acid phenethyl ester, a compound found in cinnamon and honey, might help to activate it, he said.
However, the amount of caffeic acid phenethyl ester that can be absorbed from these foods is relatively low, meaning that supplements in pill form would likely be a better option, Chuu said.
The team’s study was published in Cell Death & Disease, a peer-reviewed online journal.
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