SINGAPORE:
Scientists in Singapore have discovered
a set of cells in the womb that causes human papillomaviruses or HPV-related
cervical cancers.
Cervical
cancer is the seventh most common female cancer in Singapore and about 200
cases are diagnosed every year.
Infection
with HPV is the most common cause or risk factor for cervical cancer.
HPV
infection causes a pre-invasive cancer, known as Cervical Intraepithelial
Neoplasia, which are pre-cancerous lesions that can progress and potentially
become invasive cancer if left untreated.
The
team of scientists, from research agency A*STAR's Institute of Medical Biology
and Genome Institute of Singapore, worked with clinicians from Boston's Brigham
and Women's Hospital (BWH) in this study.
They
found that a set of cells, located at the cervix, have unique biomarkers that
are seen in all forms of invasive cervical cancers linked to HPV. This means
that the signature markers of these particular group of cells can provide a way
of distinguishing potentially dangerous pre-cancerous lesions from benign ones.
Their
research was published in the prestigious journal, Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences this week.
The
team also showed that these cells do not regenerate when excised. It said these
findings have immense clinical implications in the diagnosis, prevention and
treatment of cervical cancer.
For
example, it raises the distinct possibility that removing this set of cells in
young women could reduce their risk of cervical cancer.
Dr
Christopher P. Crum, Director of Women's and Perinatal Pathology in the
Department of pathology at BWH, said: "It has been a decades-old mystery
why cervical cancers caused by HPV arise only from a discrete region of the
cervix, known as the 'squamocolumnar junction', despite the presence of the
virus throughout the genital tract.
"The
discovery of these cells finally resolves this mystery and will have
wide-ranging impact, from developing more meaningful animal models of early
cervical carcinogenesis to clinical implications."
Dr Wa
Xian, Principal Investigator at IMB, said: "Our study also revealed that
this exotic population of cells does not reappear after ablation by cone
biopsy.
"This
finding helps to explain the low rate of new HPV infections in the cervix after
excisional therapy and also raises the distinct possibility that pre-emptive
removal of these cells in young women could reduce their risk of cervical
cancer. This could be an alternative to current vaccines which only protect
against HPV types 16 and 18."
Added
Dr Frank Mckeon, Senior Group Leader at GIS: "Our previous work on
esophageal cancer opened up the possibility of 'preventive therapy' to stamp
out the disease by eliminating this small group of cells. This recent work in
the cervix further validates this concept and raises important possibilities
for early intervention to prevent malignancies linked to very small populations
of these unusual, discrete population of cells."
In a
landmark paper published in Cell in June 2011, Dr Wa and Dr Mckeon identified a
novel mechanism for the evolution of highly aggressive cancers in collaboration
with BWH and NUS.
They
discovered that a discrete population of cells at the junction of the esophagus
and stomach were linked to precursors of esophageal cancer (Barrett's
metaplasia).
It was
the first time scientists realised that some cancers originate from just a
small set of cells that are unique from the other cells that reside around
them.
-CNA/ac
No comments:
Post a Comment