• Question: how will you find out about the cancers

    Asked by raggy to Adam, Joanna, Louise S, Louise W, Marcus on 12 Nov 2012. This question was also asked by rhino645.
    • Photo: Adam Paige

      Adam Paige answered on 12 Nov 2012:

      I started (15 years ago) by examining the DNA from cancer cells and trying to discover which genes had been damaged. These are likely to be the genes that normally prevent a cancer, but when they become damaged a cancer forms. I found a gene for ovarian cancer that was called WWOX.

      Then I took some cancer cells that did not have any WWOX (the gene was damaged) and I put a new WWOX gene into them. I could then look to see how they behaved. I found that it stopped the cells growing into a cancer tumour and it also affected how sticky the cancer cells were (which might be important because cancer cells spread around the body by sticking to other cells).

      Recently, my PhD student discovered that WWOX can also change how one of the drugs used to treat cancer works. It looks as though the drug doesn’t work so well if the tumour does not have WWOX working. I am hoping that I can find ways to make that cancer drug work better by understanding what WWOX is doing. If I can, then this will help patients recover from their disease.

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