One of the most difficult aspects of treating cancer is understanding its progression and relapse, which is often unpredictable. Fortunately, researchers at Duke National University of Singapore have discovered a biomarker protein that helps predict the behavior of many cancers.
The MBNL1 protein acts as a biomarker in many cancers and is present in low amounts in many of the common cancers in the world such as breast, colorectal, stomach, lung, and prostate cancers.
Understanding the prevalence of MBNL1, researchers found they could reverse this mechanism by blocking the JNK protein. Moving forward, the team will be investigating the protein in colorectal cancer and investigating the potential application of their discovery to cancer treatment.
Although there are no clinical trials for this potential treatment yet, this could be a major discovery in treating the almost 50 percent of diagnosed cancer cases which have this biomarker.
