Five years ago, researchers first linked liver cancer to a protein called gankyrin which caused cells to grow and divide indefinitely by upregulating DNA synthesis. Recently, however, the same researchers found out (Cancer Cell) that gankyrin promotes cancer by another pathway too: gankyrin binds to an enzyme called mdm2, which marks the p53 protein for disposal. Since it is the p53 protein which decides as to which cells should die and which should continue to divide, without the p53, damaged cells can continue dividing unchecked in the liver and grow into tumours.

The authors are hopeful this could lead to discovering anti-cancer drugs targeted against the ganyrin protein. Dr julie Sharp, senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said:

"Identifying some of the molecular events that may contribute to the development of liver cancer provides an important step towards finding better ways of treating this disease."

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