American oncologists isolated a potent inhibitor of metastasis that may enable the creation of new treatments against cancer. The metastasis, which is the invasion of cancer cells in other parts of the body, is a major cause of cancer deaths.

The oncologist Watnick Randolph, Professor of Vascular Biology Program of the Pediatric Hospital of Boston, the tumors metastasis prepare the invasion by the secretion of proteins that stimulate tumor growth and attract the capillary vessels, through which they feed.

But the benign remove a substance called prosaposina, which inhibits growth by producing factors that prevent the development of capillary vessels. In their research, scientists discovered that the tumors of prostate and breast that are not extended to other sectors of the body secreted high levels of prosaposina.

When the scientists injected laboratory in rats highly invasive tumor cells, which added prosaposina, the decreased pulmonary metastasis in 80%, the lymphatic was completely eliminated and it increased the survival of rodents by about 30%, according to the report, published by journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

By doing the reverse procedure, the researchers found that by eliminating prosaposina in tumor cells, the metastasis has increased considerably. According to Watnik, the identification of the substance could have great importance in the fight against cancer.

He says it would be useful in the treatment of original tumor, and then in efforts to halt or prevent the metastasis tumor growth.

Via: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.