A protein that helps lethal skin cancer spread through the body has been identified, according to scientists, offering a new hope for cancer treatment. Protein LAP1 allows cancer cells to become more aggressive by letting them change the shape of their nucleus and migrate around the body.
The most serious type of cancer cells, melanoma, were found to harbour LAP1 and high levels of it were linked to poor prognosis. The protein facilitates cancer spread, or metastasis, which is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths.
Metastasis has been extensively studied but so far little is known about how it works. The research could offer a new pathway to developing ways to target the spread of melanoma, including never-before-seen drugs to target LAP1 and using the presence of the protein to identify patients at risk of aggressive disease.
