Stabilizing cancer-fighting p53 can also shield a metastasi...(p53 mutant mice that lacked one or both ...),Health

The frequency of metastasis went from zero in the p53 H/H with normal Mdm2, to 9 percent in mice lacking one copy of Mdm2 to 17 percent in mice with no Mdm2. Metastasis - the invasive spread of cancer to other organs - causes 90 percent of all human cancer deaths.

Absence of a second tumor-suppressing gene, p16, also promotes stability of mutant p53.

"The importance of this study cannot be overemphasized," the researchers concluded. Drugs that try to protect normal p53 by inhibiting the p53-degrading protein Mdm2 also would protect mutant p53 "with dire consequences."

By the same token, chemotherapy that seeks to stabilize p53 could also stabilize the mutant version. Detecting the type of p53 present in a tumor is possible with current lab technology, Lozano said.

The study raises the possibility of suppressing cancer metastasis by eliminating mutant p53 stability, which the researchers note is more feasible than converting mutant p53 to the normal type.

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