Researchers identify protein that helps skin cancer spread throughout the body
Source: Queen Mary University of London, January 2023
The study, published today in Nature Cell Biology, modelled the behaviour of aggressive melanoma cells that are able to change the shape of their nucleus to overcome the physical constraints that cancer cells encounter when they migrate through tissues. The study found that these aggressive melanoma cells harboured high levels of a protein called LAP1 and that increased levels of this protein were linked to poor prognosis in melanoma patients.
Melanoma is a type of skin cancer that can spread to other organs in the body. Cancer spread or ‘metastasis’ is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. While metastasis has been extensively studied, the mechanisms by which it occurs are poorly understood. The findings from the study shed new light on a mechanism of melanoma progression and could pave the way for the development of new ways to target melanoma spread.
The study
The study was co-led by Professor Victoria Sanz-Moreno from Queen Mary’s Barts Cancer Institute and Dr Jeremy Carlton from King’s College London and The Francis Crick Institute, and primarily funded by Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust and Barts Charity.