RESEARCH
UH Cancer Center advances research on movement and spread of cancer cells
team of UH Cancer Center researchers has identified how
A some cancer cells are made to move during metastasis . The research , led by Joe Ramos , PhD , deputy director and researcher at the UH Cancer Center , provides a better understanding of how cancer spreads and may create new opportunities for cancer drug development .
Metastasis , the spread of disease from one part of the body to another , causes the deaths of 90 percent of cancer patients . Metastasis is driven by a set of mutant proteins called oncogenes , which cause cancer cells to multiply uncontrollably and promote their ability to move . How oncogene activity specifically directs increased movement and metastasis is highly complex and remains largely unknown .
Ramos and four collaborators in the Center ’ s Cancer Biology Program investigated how these oncogenes and related signals lead to dysregulation of normal processes within the cell and activate highly mobile and invasive cancer cell behavior .
The findings , published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , define a mechanism in which the oncogenes turn on a protein called RSK2 that is required for cancer cells to move . The RSK2 protein forms a signaling hub , which includes proteins called LARG and RhoA , that activates movement of the cancer cells .
These results significantly advance the understanding of how cancer cells are made to move during metastasis and may provide more precise targets for drugs to stop cancer metastasis in patients where there are oncogenic mutations .
Left to right : Joe Ramos , PhD , Vera Schwarzler , Brien Hauk , BS , Won Seok Yang , PhD .
The work was done in collaboration with UH Cancer Center researchers Michelle Matter , PhD , Ling Jin , Won Seok Yang , PhD and Geng-Xian Shi , PhD .
Multiethnic Cohort Study awarded $ 15 million
The Multiethnic Cohort ( MEC ) study received renewal of its
National Cancer Institute ( NCI ) funding , through a new five-year $ 15 million award .
The MEC study is one of the largest and most ethnically diverse of its kind . Its cohort ( a designated group that is followed over decades ) is comprised of 215,000 men and women of African American , Japanese , Latino , Native Hawaiian and Caucasian origin . The study is uniquely representative of the disease experience of U . S . ethnic / racial minority populations and is made possible by the racial and ethnic diversity that exists in Hawai ‘ i and California .
2018 marks the 25th anniversary of the MEC study , a research project that is jointly conducted by the UH Cancer Center and the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Southern California ( USC ), Los Angeles .
Loïc Le Marchand , MD , PhD , with the UH Cancer Center has been the principal investigator of the study since September 2012 . The study co-principal investigators are Lynne Wilkens , DrPH , MS , with the UH Cancer Center and Christopher Haiman , ScD , with USC .
The mission of the MEC study continues to be making a significant contribution to the goal of correcting cancer health disparities and preventing cancer and other chronic diseases in all populations .
Loïc Le Marchand , MD , PhD
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