Hopes for new cancer treatments outlined at NCRI conference

Scientists have discovered why a group of cancer drugs are so effective in treating the disease. Although they have been used for many years to treat certain tumors, researchers did not know how they worked until now.

The findings, published in EMBO Reports and presented by Cancer Research UK's chief scientist Professor Sir David Lane at the NCRI Cancer Conference in Birmingham, pave the way for the development of a new range of cancer treatments.

The study, carried out at the University of Dundee, examined a molecule called NEDD8, known to have important role in turning on p53, the gene which inhibits a cell's growth. p53 is faulty (and sometimes missing) in more than half of cancers.