Scientists discover a new Achilles’ Heel of tumors that causes them to self-destruct

Scientists have identified the Achilles' Heel of cancerous tumors, forcing the disease-spreading cells to over-stress and self-destruct.

Experiments showed blocking a specific protein that fuels tumors kills them off.

The technique worked on a range of human forms of the disease and mice with bowel and blood cancer.

What's more there are already drugs that block the chemical called ATF4 – offering hope of the fast-tracking of a revolutionary therapy.

For years scientists have been trying in vain to target a gene called MYC. It's known to drive cell growth and allow cancer to take over if it's mutated or over-expressed. Now Dr Koumenis, an oncologist at Pennsylvania University, and colleagues have found ATF4 controls a chemical pathway that works in tandem with the gene

Co-senior author Professor Constantinos Koumenis said: 'What we've learned is we need to go further downstream to block tumor growth in a way that cancer cells can't easily escape, and our study identifies the target to do just that.'   MORE