The first step in finding a cure to cancer is finding out exactly what causes it. Scientists are making headway, at least a far as colon cancer is concerned, with new findings that show that colon cancer may be a disease of hormone deficiency. The key here is GCC (guanylyl cyclase C), a protein receptor located on the intestines, which interacts with two hormones, guanylin and uroguanylin, to regulate growth of the organ. But it's thought that when colon cancer is in its early stages, these hormones are mostly absent, which gives way to the growth of tumors (for an more in-depth explanation, check out the full article here.) So then it's thought that if GCC can be stimulated, it would block tumors from growing.
This new approach to colon cancer is promising to scientists because, as clinical pharmacologist Scott Waldman, M.D., Ph.D., points out, 'it's a completely different way of thinking about the disease ... Not only does this give a new paradigm in how we think about the disease, but it gives us a new paradigm for treating the disease -- that is, by hormone replacement therapy.'
