Prostate cancer doesn't kill in the prostate – it's only once the disease travels to bone, lung, liver, etc. that it turns fatal. Previous studies have shown that loss of the protein E-Cadherin is essential for this metastasis. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published this week in the Journal of Biological Chemistry describes for the first time a switch that regulates the production of E-Cadherin: the transcription factor SPDEF turns on and off production, leading to metastasis or stopping it cold in models of prostate cancer.
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