Study may lead to skin cancer treatment
The number of people being diagnosed with skin cancer continues to rise in the UK, despite healthcare warnings about the dangers of the sun and tanning booths, but new research may help to reduce mortality statistics.
According to a new study by Loyola University Health System researchers, alternative treatments that would shrink skin cancer tumours with drugs are a possibility.
The investigation study was published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry and claims that the drugs would work by turning on a gene that prevents skin cells from becoming cancerous.
Senior author Dr Mitchell Denning, a resident at the facility, examined a type of skin cancer called squamous cell carcinoma, which accounts for a third of all cases.
Normally, natural or artificial damages a skin cell's DNA, with a protein called protein kinase C (PKC) activated in response to the damage.
However, if the damage is too great to repair, the PKC protein directs the cell to die and Dr Denning concentrated on this as a base for the study.
He found that a class of drugs called protein kinase inhibitors could potentially shrink tumors by turning the PKC gene back on, adding that he is now pursuing a grant to fund research on animal subjects which would hopefully test the efficacy of the drugs.
Similar medication is already used to treat other cancers and Dr Denning said that squamous cell carcinoma treatment could even help to avoid the need for skin grafts and other physical operations which sufferers usually have to undergo.
Posted by James McCann
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