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Identifying the origins of cervical cancer

Date:
June 11, 2012
Source:
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Summary:
A specific population of cells that are found only in the region of the cervix called the 'squamo-columnar junction' can become cancerous when infected with HPV while other cells in the cervix apparently do not.
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Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital uncover a population of cells that are targeted by the cancer-causing Human Papillomaviruses (HPV).

Virtually all cervical cancers are caused by HPV infections, with just two HPV types, 16 and 18, responsible for about 70 percent of all cases, according to the National Cancer Institute. Scientists have presumed for decades that the cervical cancers that develop from HPV infection arise in a specific location in the cervix. Now, new research from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in close collaboration with Harvard Medical School and the Agency for Science Technology and Research in Singapore finds that a specific population of cells that are found only in the region of the cervix called the 'squamo-columnar junction' can become cancerous when infected with HPV while other cells in the cervix apparently do not. This research is published online the week of June 11 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

"We have discovered a discrete population of cells that are located in a specific area of the cervix that could be responsible for most, if not all, of HPV-associated cervical cancers," said Christopher Crum, MD, director, Women's and Perinatal Pathology at BWH and a senior author on the paper.

Xian Wa, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the National University of Singapore and Frank McKeon, PhD, Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School are also senior authors of the PNAS research paper. A prior discovery published in 2011 by the Xian/McKeon group on the origins of cancer in the esophagus set the stage for the current study.

Dr. Crum and Michael Herfs, PhD, a research fellow from the University of Liège and the lead author in the study, collaborated with the Xian/Mckeon laboratory to show that these cells have a unique gene expression that is also found in the cells of aggressive tumors of the cervix. This knowledge could potentially allow clinicians to differentiate benign from potentially dangerous precancerous lesions in the cervix and guide therapy.

Additionally, the investigators noted that when the cells are removed from the cervix, which typically happens when treating precancers, they do not regenerate. They believe this opens up intriguing prospects for cancer prevention.

"The removal of these cells in young women before they are subject to HPV infection or precancerous changes could potentially reduce the risk of cervical cancer, but further research is needed to evaluate the benefits and risks of this potential therapy," said the authors. Additionally, Crum noted that the discovery of these cells could promote more meaningful cell models to further study cervical cancer.

This research was funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Institutes of Health (grants RC1 HL100767, R01-GM83348 and R21CA124688), the Singapore-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Alliance for Research and Technology, the European Research Council, Agence de Nationale, the Institute of Medical Biology; and the Genome Institute of Singapore of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research as well as the Department of Defense (W81XWH-10-1-0289).


Story Source:

Materials provided by Brigham and Women's Hospital. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. M. Herfs, Y. Yamamoto, A. Laury, X. Wang, M. R. Nucci, M. E. McLaughlin-Drubin, K. Munger, S. Feldman, F. D. McKeon, W. Xian, C. P. Crum. A discrete population of squamocolumnar junction cells implicated in the pathogenesis of cervical cancer. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1202684109

Cite This Page:

Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Identifying the origins of cervical cancer." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 11 June 2012. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120611153102.htm>.
Brigham and Women's Hospital. (2012, June 11). Identifying the origins of cervical cancer. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120611153102.htm
Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Identifying the origins of cervical cancer." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120611153102.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

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