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Posts with tag p53
Posted Apr 3rd 2007 9:00AM by Jacki Donaldson
Filed under: All Cancers, Research, Daily news, Thought for the Day

It might not be possible at this time to eradicate cancer altogether. But we may be able to stop cancer cells in their tracks through a process called senescence.
In senescence, cells don't divide. And when cells don't divide, they don't grow. In such a scenario then, cancer cells wouldn't divide and therefore couldn't grow.
Think about this:
According to lab tests on mice, triggering senescence in certain cells hampers the growth of some tumors.
Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston are the ones behind the scenes on this project -- the study appears online in EMBO Reports, a publication of the European Molecular Biology Organization -- and all eyes are on the p53 gene.
The p53 gene lives within cells and works to nip cancer in the bud by springing to action in damaged cells that may be spinning themselves into a cancer frenzy.
Researchers say senescence ordered by the p53 gene is extremely important in suppressing tumor formation and is as important as apoptosis -- a type of programmed cell death. But in some cancers, senescence might not be enough to halt cancer, they found.
OK, so senescence is not a perfect approach to halting all cancers. But it seems to work for some -- so I say for now, let's take what we can get.
Posted Aug 5th 2006 7:46PM by Dalene Entenmann
Filed under: Prevention, All Cancers, Research

Cancer is not an inevitable outcome in the process of aging, but the older a person gets, the greater the odds for developing cancer. Aging have long been known as one of the greatest risks to developing cancer -- and not one that anyone has ever been able to alter.
In the Times Online Sunday edition Sue Armstrong writes the most compelling and engaging article about a gene that has the power to stop cancer -- but right now it comes wrapped in a conundrum of potential consequence in unknown disaster. She refers to the power of p53, a genetic miracle worker, a power discovered by sheer error on the part of researchers who created mice without the gene known to protect humans from cancer. As expected, these mice developed cancer early and often. In a different group of mice researchers created mice with the gene but in a more active form than is usually found. What came next surprised everyone.
Continue reading p53: gene with the power to stop cancer
Posted Jul 27th 2006 7:10PM by Kristina Collins
Filed under: Prevention, All Cancers, Clinical Trials, Research
One of the most important factors in finding a cure for cancer is to figure out what causes our cells to change and become malignant. A study was done by Edinburgh scientists at the University of Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre.
There is an important protein residing in our cells that inhibits cancer. This protein is called p53. Another protein called MDM2 controls the activity of the p53 protein. The study showed that the ratio between the MDM2 and the p53 protein can become unbalanced. This can cause the P53 protein to not perform as it should.
If the cell protein MDM2 can be stopped from interfering with the protein p53 then that is another way that scientists can come up with new therapies to treat cancer. Let's hope for new non-toxic therapies while we are at it!