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Source: ONE News -
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Researchers have found a stem cell, a kind of master cell that
may cause at least some types of prostate cancer.
Their findings are only experimental - the stem cells were found in
mice - but could explain at least some types of prostate cancer and
eventually offer new ways to treat it, they reported in the journal
Nature.
The findings also show a potential new source for prostate tumours
- so-called luminal cells, which secrete various compounds used in
the prostate.
"The role of stem cells in the development of prostate cancer has
been a focus of speculation for many years," Dr Helen Rippon of
Britain's Prostate Cancer Charity said in a statement.
"Importantly, this new stem cell does not rely on androgens - the
male sex hormones that control prostate growth - to survive and
grow. This may give a clue as to why prostate cancer often becomes
resistant to treatments designed to regulate these androgens in the
later stages of the disease," added Rippon, who was not involved in
the research.
"This improved knowledge will also be a step forward in learning
how we might help to prevent the disease from developing in men in
the first place."
Michael Shen of Columbia University Medical Center and colleagues
named the new stem cells CARNs, for castration-resistant
Nkx3.1-expressing cells.
They normally regenerate part of the tissue that lines the inside
of the gland, which produces semen.
But the cells can also form tumours if certain genes meant to
stop out-of-control growth get turned off.
Shen said researchers had believed that tumours arise from a
different layer of cells in the prostate, called basal cells.
"Previous research suggested that prostate cancer originates from
basal stem cells, and that during cancer formation these cells
differentiate into luminal cells," Shen said in a statement.
"Instead, CARNs may represent a luminal origin for prostate
cancer."
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men worldwide
after lung cancer, killing 254,000 men a year globally.
