Skin cancer cells are found to thrive using a Alzheimer’s protein amyloid beta as per a study NYU Langone Health / NYU Grossman School Of Medicine, published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Almost 40% of melanoma patients with advanced (Stage IV) disease have the spread (metastasis) to the brain.
‘Amyloid-beta proteins of Alzheimers disease are found to be the deciding factor for the survival of the deadliest form of skin cancer cells melanoma after their spread in the brain.
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The study revealed that metastatic melanoma cells recovered from human brains and grown in tissue cultures make roughly three times as much amyloid-beta as cancer cells that have spread to other parts of the body.
“Our study reveals an unexpected role for tumor-secreted amyloid beta in promoting the survival of melanoma brain metastases, and suggest a new way to counter it,” says senior study author Eva Hernando, PhD, professor in the Department of Pathology, and assistant dean for Research Integration, at NYU Langone Health.
Source: Medindia
