Timing is everything for p53
Since the early 1980s, cancer researchers have known that a protein called p53 plays a critical role in protecting cells from becoming cancerous. Knowing p53's critical role in controlling cancer, researchers have been trying to develop drugs that restore the protein's function, in hopes of re-establishing the ability to suppress tumor growth. In a new study that highlights a possible limitation of such drugs, MIT cancer biologists show that restoring p53's function in mice with lung cancer has no effect early in tumor development, but restoring the function later on could prevent more advanced tumors from spreading throughout the body. more...
