GUMC Researchers Find Gene Function “Lost” in Melanoma and Gliobla

December 17, 2008

Researchers at GUMC published the results of a study in the December 15 issue of Cancer Research, which found a gene they say is inactivated in two aggressive cancers – malignant melanoma, a form of skin cancer, and glioblastoma multiforme, a lethal brain tumor. They added that because this gene, known as PTPRD, was recently found to be inactivated in several other cancers as well, their discovery suggests that PTPRD may play a tumor suppressor role in a wide variety of different cancers.

“Over the past decade several dozen tumor suppressor genes have been identified, but only a minority of them are important in causing many different tumor types. PTPRD seems to be one of these broad spectrum tumor suppressor genes,” said the study’s lead investigator, Todd Waldman, associate professor of oncology. He was hopeful that by utilizing the results of this study, it may be possible to design a therapy that has wide applicability in oncology.

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