While bladder cancer affects around 10,000 people a year in the UK, a team of UK researchers has been working on how a certain protein creates a signal that causes the disease to spread. Indeed, “bladder cancer becomes invasive when it grows through the muscle layer of the bladder”, explains the chain. BBC News. When this happens, the chances of the cancer spreading and the difficulty of treatment increase.
In a study published by the journal American Journal of Physiology: Renal Physiology, researchers at the University of Plymouth explain having identified a protein present in most cancers of the bladder. The latter would play an important role in the signaling process that allows cancer to spread.
Improve the quality of life
Professor Raymond Playford, co-author of the study, told the BBC News : “Although bladder cancer can be easily treated when diagnosed early enough, once it begins to affect deep tissue and spread to nearby organs, it makes the patient’s life much more difficult and painful. “
“By identifying the mechanism by which bladder cancer grows and spreads, we hope to succeed in developing therapies capable of changing this mechanism in order to improve the quality of life and the survival rate of patients,” he concludes. .
