Cancer cell mutations hint new treatments

BALTIMORE, Sep 26, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Johns Hopkins University scientists in Baltimore have found three genetic mutations in brain tumors that suggest more effective cancer treatments.

The Hopkins team, in conjunction with researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Md., discovered DNA abnormalities in two tyrosine kinase proteins already known to disrupt normal cell activity and contribute to tumor formation.

The discovery is especially significant, the researchers say, because tyrosine kinases can be targeted using pharmaceuticals.

"We picked these proteins to sequence because receptor tyrosine kinases sit on the cell surface where anticancer drugs can get at them," said Dr. Gregory Riggins, co-lead author of the study and an associate professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The study is published in the Oct. 4 edition of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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