A specific protein Researchers have been discovered by researchers that switches on the process that releases cancer cells from the original tumor and allows the cells to spread and develop into

new tumors in other parts of the body.

 The finding is of disabled-2 (Dab2) in Nature Cell Biology as reported by Boffins.

The process called epithelial-mesenchymal transdifferientiation (EMT) has been known to play a role in releasing cells (epithelial cells) on the surface of the solid tumor and transforming them

into transient mesenchymal cell: cells with the ability to start to grow a new tumor.

Ge Jin, who has joint appointments at the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine and the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, began by working backwards

from EMT to find its trigger searching to understand how the EMT process begins.

The researchers found that a compound called transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß) triggers the formation of the Dab2 protein. It was this protein, Dab2, that activated the EMT process.

He discovered that when the researchers knocked out Dab2, EMT was not triggered.

Jin further added," This is the major piece in cancer research that has been missing."

Most tumors are epithelial in origin and have epithelial markers on their surface. The EMT process takes place when some of those cells dislodge from the surface and undergo a transformation

into a fibrous mesenchymal cell maker with the ability to migrate.

  Jin was part of a six-member research team, led by Philip Howe from the Department of Cancer Biology at the Lerner Research Institute in a National Cancer Institute-funded study. (With Input from Agencies)