Overview
- A Nature Genetics paper from the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute reports that WNT-pathway faults drive high levels of the protein NPM1 in bowel cancer and in a subset of liver cancers.
- Laboratory experiments show that removing or blocking NPM1 disrupts cancer cells’ protein production and allows a tumour suppressor to halt growth.
- Lead author Professor Owen Sansom notes that NPM1 is not essential for normal adult tissue health, indicating a potential therapeutic window.
- The work forms part of the SpecifiCancer effort within Cancer Grand Challenges, which investigates why cancer-causing genes trigger tumours in specific tissues.
- The team’s next step is to identify or develop drugs that inhibit NPM1, with no candidate therapies or clinical trials reported yet.