Scientists are one step closer to stopping the growth of drug-resistant tumors

Scientists have solved a long-standing mystery surrounding a cancer-promoting protein and how it causes tumors to grow.

The findings are an important step in the quest to make cancer drugs more effective because aggressive tumors often become adept at resisting drugs and other therapeutic agents.

The research team studied a protein called Smoothened, which plays a vital role in the growth of healthy tissues and organs.

However, when the protein becomes overactive, it can lead to the formation and spread of brain and skin tumors.

Thus, disabling this protein can prevent cancer from spreading, although tumors eventually adapt, making this approach ineffective.

But at the same time, protein is part of the body's signaling pathway.

The signaling path is similar to a telephone wire that extends from the cell surface to the inside of the cell, where the messages transmitted through this wire provide instructions for the cell.

"We knew the 'telephone cord' was there but we had no idea how it worked. And that left a huge gap in our ability to turn it off therapeutically to treat cancer," says study co-author Benjamin Myers.

The hope is that by understanding it better, cancer drugs will become much more effective.

These results explain how this protein is triggered at the molecular level and what signal is being sent.

Myers says undergraduate biology students who worked in his lab were pivotal to the discovery.

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Huntsman Cancer Foundation.

Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news