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Clue to melanoma development
Malignant melanoma is a relatively rare, but deadly, form of skin cancer. Penn State researchers Mitchell Cheung, Gavin Robertson and colleagues have now discovered that 2 proteins in skin moles can interact with one another to cause melanoma.
Many moles contain one of the proteins, V600EB-Raf. This protein seems to be important in helping the cells that form moles grow and develop into moles. However, its presence alone is not enough to cause cancer. Instead, as the Penn State researchers report in a May 2008 issue of the journal Cancer Research, melanomas are more likely to develop when the Akt3 protein is also present in cells. Interaction between the two proteins in the mole cells seems to then cause melanomas to develop.
Much remains to be discovered about these proteins, and the reasons why they start interacting to cause cancer. However, the research suggests that targeting both proteins simultaneously may increase the efficacy of melanoma therapies.