Compound attacks pancreatic cancer
By Nathan Seppa
From San Francisco, at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research
Scientists in Japan have found that a protein fragment dubbed NK4 can stall the development of pancreatic cancer in mice.
The researchers isolated NK4 in 1989 by taking apart a protein called hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), which normally attaches to a receptor molecule on the surface of cells. In tumor cells, HGF’s attachment can rev up metabolism and set the cell on a cancerous growth path.