Discovering how ovarian cancer spreads

Chemical messengers, which traditionally fight infection and help to heal the body, can turn traitor and cause ovarian cancer to spread, says a study¹ published today.

Cancer Research UK scientists have discovered that one of these chemicals, detected in ovarian cancer, actually encourages the growth and spread of ovarian tumours.

A scientific study led by Professor Frances Balkwill at Cancer Research UK’s translational oncology laboratory in London, has identified an individual chemical messenger, known as a chemokine, that increases the ability of ovarian cancer cells to move around the body. Moreover, this chemokine may help the ovarian cancers to grow when they reach other organs.

Chemokines usually fight infections and boost immune responses by attracting healing cells to troubled areas.

They are generally regarded as the “good guys” which work to heal the body. But they can have a dark side when it comes to the spread of cancer.

“If chemokines are made in the right place at the right time in the correct amount for the correct period of time then they are really very useful,” says Prof Balkwill, of Queen Mary’s Medical School, London. “But if they are made in the wrong place at the wrong time and for too long that’s when they cause a problem.

“Chemokines appear to behave in a contradictory way because while their primary function is to move ‘good’ cells around the body to fight infection, they also play a harmful role in encouraging cancer cells to spread.”

Other studies have identified different chemokines in a variety of other cancers. For instance, a different chemokine encourages breast cancer cells to spread to lymph nodes.

This latest discovery is a new piece in the jigsaw puzzle of how ovarian cancer spreads.

The next stage is for scientists to find what will inhibit these unwanted actions of chemokines. There is evidence that some drugs, currently used in the treatment of advanced cases of HIV/AIDS, do stop cells responding to the chemokine.

“We hope that further scientific tests might show that these types of drugs can be useful in the treatment of cancer,” says Prof Balkwill.

Sir Paul Nurse, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, says: “Each new discovery that tells us something about the way tumours behave and how they spread in the body is very important in adding to the bank of information that will ultimately enable us to control the progress of cancer.”

ENDS

1. Cancer Research: 62; pp.5930-8