Medical News Today is reporting that scientists at Boston’s Children’s Hospital have discovered that a protein, prosaposin, inhibits tumors from metastasizing (spreading) to other parts of the body. From the article:
[Researcher Dr. Randolph S.] Watnick and colleagues had already discovered that metastatic tumors don’t just start spreading to other organs: they prepare their “landing places” by secreting proteins that encourage tumor cells to grow in the new site by doing things like attracting feeder blood vessels so when the migrating tumor cells get there they hit the ground running.
Now, in this latest study, they report finding a protein called prosaposin that stops the advanced site preparation by producing compounds that block the growth of blood vessels. They found that tumors that don’t become metastatic, that is they stay local, secrete prosaposin.
They looked at cells from localized prostate and breast tumors that didn’t metastasize, and found they secreted high levels of prosaposin, whereas cells from tumors that had spread secreted very little of it.
