Molecular breakthrough could halt the spread of prostate cancer

Research involving Nottingham academics has shown that a signal protein that plays a crucial role in controlling the growth of blood vessels could be used to suppress tumours in prostate cancer. The discovery by Dr Sebastian Oltean at Bristol University and Nottingham's David Bates , Professor of Oncology in The University of Nottingham's Cancer Biology Unit and academics at UWE Bristol , could be used to develop new drugs to improve the long-term management and prognosis for prostate cancer patients. Professor Bates said: "This work opens up a new avenue for drug development for prostate cancer. This is a new target, and we believe we will be able to make drugs that hit this target in those patients that can benefit, with prostate cancer, and potentially other cancers too." - Starving the tumour. The research, published in the academic cancer journal Oncogene, centres on the role in the body of the signal protein vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). VEGF comes in two forms — proangiogenic, which encourages the growth or blood vessels, and anti-angiogenic, which inhibits vascular growth. The researchers have discovered that in prostate cancer the cancer cells produce proangiogenic VEGF to form the new blood vessels that are needed to carry vital nutrients and oxygen to tumours.