Scientists Find New Way To Combat Drug Resistance In Skin Cancer
Thursday, May 22, 2014 - 13:20
in Health & Medicine
RAPID RESISTANCE to vemurafenib – a treatment for a type of advanced melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer – could be prevented by blocking a druggable family of proteins, according to research* published in Nature Communications today (Thursday). Scientists at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, based at the University of Manchester, have revealed the MLK family of four enzymes 'undoes' the tumour-shrinking effects of vemurafenib**. Around half of metastatic melanomas – aggressive skin cancer that has spread to other parts of the body – are caused by a fault in the cell-growth gene BRAF, causing the signal telling cells to multiply to be permanently switched on. read more