Author: Jody Rosenblatt, Ph.D.
A single layer of cells acts like a protective skin for the organs in the human body, but this protective layer also is prone to forming tumors. Normally, these protective cells are dividing constantly and when they become too numerous, some are kicked out to die by a process these researchers have found called “extrusion.” Recently, they found that extrusion is defunct in some of the most aggressive tumors—pancreatic and lung carcinomas—and that instead of dying the cells accumulate and are resistant to chemotherapy. Additionally, some cells can pop into instead of out of the tissue, which could enable them to move to other organs and metastasize—an even more deadly prospect. From learning this basic cellular mechanism for how cells should die, the researchers identified a chemical way to bypass the defects seen in pancreatic cancer without affecting the normal tissue, which could provide a new therapy for these deadly tumors.