PHILADEPHIA, Pa., March 9 (UPI) -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have found a way to screen cancer patients to see if they're suitable for a promising class of anti-cancer drugs.
The researchers propose screening cancer patients for proteasome inhibitors by testing for p53, a tumor-suppressor protein.
The anti-cancer proteasome inhibitors might be ineffective in patients whose tumors do not produce p53, said the researchers at the university's schools of medicine and veterinary medicine.
However, proteasome inhibitors are highly effective against lymphomas that do produce p53, the researchers said.
"Proteasomes resemble paper shredders - they break down proteins such as p53 into smaller pieces," said associate pathology professor Andrei Thomas-Tikhonenko. "A proteosome inhibitor effectively jams the shredder so that p53 is not immediately broken down."
The study appears online in the journal Blood , in advance of print publication in Ju
ne 2007
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