UCLA team discovers how to restrict growth, spread of head and neck cancers

Researchers from the  UCLA School of Dentistry have discovered a key molecule that allows cancer stem cells to bypass the body’s natural immune defenses, spurring the growth and spread of head and neck squamous cell cancers. Their study, conducted in mice, also demonstrates that inhibiting this molecule derails cancer progression and helps e liminate these stem cells.  Published today in the journal Cell Stem Cell, the findings could help pave the way for more effective targeted treatments for this highly invasive type of cancer, which is characterized by frequent resistance to therapies, rapid metastasis and a high mortality rate.Cancer stem cells, also known as tumor-initiating cells, are considered to be the original source of cancerous tissues — the cells that give rise to all other cancer cells. Their ability to survive and proliferate in the early stages of cancer development, as well as during tumor growth and metastasis, suggests they have an intrinsic ability to evade detection by the body’s immune surveillance system. The resear chers set out to better understand how and why this happens.When the immune system is functioning properly, the body ’s natural infection-fighting T cells help to identify and ward off carcinogenic cells, foreign viruses and other invaders. However, it is known that some cancer cells elude this immune response by means of protein molecules on their surface known as “checkpoints,” which bind to similar molecu les on the T cells...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news