It has long been known that genetics can play a vital role in a person’s susceptibility to cancer growth. In some cases, a poor family history can almost guarantee that they fall victim to the disease. Fortunately, there is now good news regarding melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, coming from America’s National Institute of Health (NIH). Published in Nature Genetics, the study showed that mutations in the parts of the genetic code which are translated into the cancer suppressing enzyme 'matrix metalloproteinase', more commonly known as MMP, were prevalent in many melanomas. Where MMP would normally act as a ‘checking’ enzyme to prevent uncontrolled cell growth, it was found that in 25% of cases this enzyme did not function correctly.
These tumor suppressing genes were originally thought to be over-productive oncogenes, which encourage cell growth, as such they were targeted by medications to be blocked thus reducing levels of MMP. In contrast the opposite would have been more appropriate to instead increase levels of MMP. This may be the reason why those treatments, simply put, did not work. Future medications may seek to improve the function of MMP encoding genes in the hope that the MMP enzyme may be able to slow or even put a stop to melanoma growth.
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Source: http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2009/03/29/skin_cancer_study_uncovers_new_tumor_suppressor_gene.html
