How to treat the skin cancer ? This thorny question may have just found a new answer. Researchers in genetics and immunology at Tel Aviv University (Israel) and the Heidelberg Cancer Research Center (Germany) announce that they have discovered the mechanism by which melanoma spread to the rest of the body. They publish their research in the journal Nature Cell Biology.
Prevent cancer cells from passing from the epidermis to the dermis
The researchers looked at the phenomena that occur at the very beginning of the disease. Cancer cells are initially confined to the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin. As the disease progresses, they invade the dermis, a layer of skin located deeper. Scientists have been able to show that when they pass through the dermis, cancer cells can send small vesicles throughout the body, via the blood vessels present in this tissue. “As the first interaction between melanoma and blood vessels takes place in the dermis, our data suggests an opportunity to block melanoma invasion by preventing the formation of tumor niches in the dermis.“, propose the researchers in their publication. Stopping the passage of melanoma from the epidermis to the dermis would therefore allow, according to these researchers, to stem skin cancer. Indeed, if the cancer was limited to the epidermis, it would not reach the blood vessels in the dermis and therefore could not generate metastases by migrating, via the blood, to other organs.
The threat of melanoma is mainly found in its metastases
A significant hope, since, as Carmit Levy, co-author of the study, explained to AFP: “the threat of melanoma is not in the initial tumor that appears on the skin, but rather in metastasizing when tumor cells are sent to colonize vital organs such as the brain, the lungs, the liverand the bones“. Further studies are needed to confirm the effectiveness of such a blockade, which should be implemented at the earliest stage of the disease. Currently, in France, more than 1,600 people die of cancer each year. of the skin, according to the National Cancer Institute (Inca).
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