Originally published September 22 2005
Spread of prostate cancer linked to Wnt proteins
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
University of Michigan's Comprehensive Cancer Center scientists have found that prostate cancer often spreads to the bone -- where it is difficult to treat -- through the hijacking of a group of signaling proteins called Wnts, Science Daily reports.
More than 80 percent of men who die from prostate cancer die with metastatic disease in their bones.
But scientists know very little about how migrating prostate cancer cells set up housekeeping in bone tissue and produce the dense bony lesions characteristic of prostate cancer.
By changing the amount and activity of Wnt proteins, prostate cancer cells upset the normal balance between formation and destruction of bony tissue.
Hall is first author of a paper to be published in the Sept. 1 issue of Cancer Research, which presents results from U-M studies of Wnt proteins in human prostate cancer cell lines and in laboratory mice injected with prostate cancer cells.
Several types of cancer metastasize to bone, according to Keller, but most of them tip the balance toward destruction -- producing what scientists call osteolytic lesions, or holes in the bone.
Prostate cancer is unique in its ability to trigger increased bone production, which creates what's called an osteoblastic lesion.
"Our hypothesis is that prostate cancer cells first induce more bone resorption to help the invading cells become established in bone.
But then there's a switch to increased bone production.
In the first phase of their research, U-M scientists measured the amount of Wnt protein in cells from normal human prostate tissue, localized prostate cancer and metastatic prostate cancer cells.
They discovered that the amounts of Wnt and DKK-1 protein present in human prostate cells varied inversely with the developmental stage of prostate cancer.
Twelve weeks later, U-M researchers removed and examined bone tumors from the mice.
In previous research, the U-M team found that preventing the osteolytic changes associated with bone resorption also prevented prostate cancer from establishing itself in bone.
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