FROM
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1659789.htm
WA researchers make breast, prostate cancer breakthrough
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PM - Friday, 9 June , 2006 18:50:00
Reporter: David Weber
MARK COLVIN: Researchers in Western Australia have discovered a gene which could lead to new treatments in breast and prostate cancer, as well as diabetes and
obesity.
The gene is called SLIRP, Slirp for short, and it's been identified as having the potential to shut down the hormones that keep cancer cells alive.
The research team says that in the near term the discovery should lead to lower doses of current cancer therapies like radiation.
But the secrets of SLIRP are still being unlocked.
David Weber reports.
DAVID WEBER: The Director of the WA Institute for Medical Research, Peter Klinken, says the identification of SLIRP is achieving worldwide recognition.
PETER KLINKEN: From my perspective, I think it's the most exciting discovery that the institute has made, certainly over the last two years.
It's internationally recognised as a major breakthrough, and to be perfectly honest we're just incredibly proud that Peter and his team have achieved this.
DAVID WEBER: Professor Peter Leedman says his team detected SLIRP using RNA, ribonucleic acid, as opposed to a protein. Proteins are what scientists often employ to find new genes.
Professor Leedman says that until today SLIRP was described as a hypothetical molecule.
PETER LEEDMAN: It's a very interesting molecule that seems to be involved in turning down the pathways that lead to proliferation of breast and prostate cancer cells.
So in particular, SLIRP can turn down the oestrogen signalling pathway that's fundamental for making breast cancer cells grow, and also the androgen, or testosterone, signalling pathway that makes prostate cancer cells grow
DAVID WEBER: Will radiation treatment still be required?
PETER LEEDMAN: Absolutely. I think the approach to cancer therapy now, and over the next 10 years, we're realising that patients really need multiple modalities. And radiotherapy and chemotherapy still have an incredibly important role.
What some of the new drugs that are going to be used and discovered in the next 10 years will enable will be hopefully lower doses of both of these modalities and more specific and targeted therapies, so that we can predict the women who are likely to respond and who may not need as much radiotherapy or chemotherapy as before.
DAVID WEBER: As well as slowing tumour growth, SLIRP has other functions.
It was found in the body tissues that require the most energy, such as the heart, the liver, the testes and skeletal muscle.
SLIRP regulates energy balance and may be involved in fat metabolism.
Professor Leedman says SLIRP is now being scrutinised from a variety of angles. He says eventually it could be added back to muscles to prevent weight gain.
PETER LEEDMAN: It clearly is going to have a role in cancer, but it also has a role in normal tissues. And the normal tissues, how it's going to be involved in regulating energy balance is critical. And it's a challenge for us to work that out. It could be good in some cells of the body and bad in others.
And it certainly has two different guises: one substantial role in cancer, that is the hormone dependent cancers, breast and prostate, but also, and most challenging for us and interesting, especially with the obesity epidemic we have in the population, is to work out its role in skeletal, muscle and heart.
DAVID WEBER: How long before the treatments for prostate cancer and breast cancer are available?
PETER LEEDMAN: The current work, where we're looking at about 600 women at Royal Perth Hospital who've had breast cancer, and we're analysing how abundant SLIRP is in those people, potentially that could be a test that would be offered within a couple of years. Because if it was able to help us predict who was going to respond to Tamoxifen, who's going to relapse, who might have a poor outcome, then it would be a very useful addition to the therapeutic tests that we currently have for breast cancer.
So that's a reasonably short time.
DAVID WEBER: Professor Leedman also says the three-dimensional structure of the gene needs to be solved, and that may take five to 10 years. He hopes it won't be that long.
MARK COLVIN: David Weber.
Re: Obesity Why are we gettinG Fat? :epizza:
