New Cancer Treatment on the Horizon

A group of scientists from Rockefeller University recently published in the journal Genes and Development that they have found a way using mice to enhance the signals that trigger cells to die when they begin to multiply in dangerously abnormal ways. This would be a way to kill precancerous cell before they become completely cancerous.

They are using a protein called inhibitors of apoptosis protein (IAPs) to accomplish this and they believe eventually a new class of drugs will be available to treat some cancers.

The next problem to solve is to determine which individual IAPs contribute to tumors and which IAPS we need to target in order to cure cancer. This will be the more difficult task.

There are no “free-rides” with any drug therapy and side effects and complications of harm to normal cells will have to be assessed.