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metastasis

Lasers could help biotag cancer cells

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara are introducing a novel technique using a form of laser spectroscopy and biotags that help discriminate between cancerous and healthy cells.

While the tech is likely years away from clinical trials, the team hopes it will eventually lead to a microdevice that can predict when prostate cancer will metastasize--which is key, given it is the metastasis throughout the body, not the primary tumor, that kills prostate cancer patients.

"The delay is not well understood," says Gary Braun, biologist and second author of the paper that appears this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. &… Read more

Team IDs, looks to block gene that spreads cancer

Researchers at the University of East Anglia in England say they have identified the gene that helps cancer spread throughout the body, and that finding a drug that deactivates that gene could make treating cancer both easier and more likely to be successful.

The culprit, called WWP2, is an enzymatic bonding agent in cancer cells that attacks the body's natural inhibitors of the spread of cancer.

Lead author Andrew Chantry says in the school's press release that the discovery could lead to the development of a new generation of drugs within the coming decade to stop cancer's … Read more