Human Cells Turned Into Tumors for 1st Time by Manipulation of Genes

Researchers have for the first time transformed human cells into tumors by genetic manipulation, a team from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Boston reports in today’s Nature. It has been relatively easy to convert rodent cells into tumors in the laboratory, but human cells have previously resisted such attempts.

The team achieved their success by altering just three genes, demonstrating that production of cancer is controlled by a short, defined genetic process. Two of the genes were the so-called large-T oncoprotein and the ras oncogene, which are known to play a role in cancer causation. But the two did not produce cancer unless the researchers also altered the telomerase gene, which controls the number of times a cell can reproduce. The research will shed new light on how tumors are formed.

--Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II