Protein may aid prostate cancer victims

Cambridge, Mass. -- Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have learned a specific protein may hold the key to restricting the spread of prostate cancer.

A university cancer research team has found that Protein 4.1B can play an integral role in not only suppressing prostate cancer, but also predicting where forms of the disease may spread.

The research team gathered its findings by injecting mice with prostate cancer tumors and compared the varied metastatic properties of its cells, a release said Friday.

That research prompted them to suppress Protein 4.1B in several poorly metastatic cells and those cells' ability to spread quickly grew.

MIT professor Richard O. Hynes said those findings are likely similar in humans as low levels of that protein have been found in patients with metastatic prostate cancers.

"Our findings show that Protein 4.1B loss is causally related to the progression of prostate cancer," Hynes said. "Although such a causal link has not yet been shown in other cancers, we also believe that Protein 4.1B is a more widely significant factor in metastasis in other cancers than has been realized."

Copyright 2007 by United Press International.