To prevent cancer in butterfly disease patients
Thursday, March 10, 2016 - 12:30
in Health & Medicine
Fragile skin that blisters easily: 90 percent of the patients that suffer from the skin condition recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) develop rapidly progressing cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas, a type of skin cancer, by the age of 55. 80 percent of these patients will die due to metastasis within five years after the cancer has been first detected. Researchers have now discovered how the two diseases are connected and which molecular mechanisms underlie the aggressive behavior of squamous cell carcinomas in RDEB patients.