Scienceblogtwo

There is now a method that explains how cancer cells become innocuous, normal cells. According to a new study, altering the chemical alterations, or so-called epigenetics, of a particular type of leukemia cell's genetic material, the messenger RNA, causes the leukemia cells to change from highly proliferative to normal cells that stop growing. Alberto Bueno-Costa, a researcher in the lab of Dr. Manel Esteller, director of the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, ICREA researcher, and professor at the University of Barcelona, is the study's lead author. The work was published in the journal Leukemia. When a healthy cell develops cancer, it transforms into a malignant one with wholly new characteristics, such the capacity to divide uncontrollably. The transformation of healthy tissue into tumor tissue is triggered by a variety of molecular changes, which have been extensively studied in recent years. The reverse process, which transforms a cancer cell into a normal, non-c...