Health & Fitness News

Irish scientists have made a massive breakthrough in lung cancer research and the best thing about this breakthrough? It could help to stop the spread of this deadly disease.

The Irish Daily Mirror reports that a study carried out at St James’s Hospital in Dublin has been hailed as a huge step forward and should lead to the development of new ways of treating the disease in the future.

The research, carried out by Professor Ken O’Byrne and Dr Mary Claire Cuthbert, managed to identify a rogue enzyme that fuels cancer cells. The Irish Cancer Society funded the research that examined two blood clotting enzymes that are key to how lung cancer develops in patients.

Lung cancer has the highest death rate in Ireland. More than 1,700 people died from the disease in 2010 alone.

The team of researchers from St James’s Hospital examined tissue samples from more than 200 lung cancer patients and discovered that while one enzyme is responsible for causing cancer cells to spread rapidly, another works to reduce the growth of the cells. This information could be central to creating a new anti-cancer treatment which works with the enzymes of the disease itself.

Professor O’Byrne said that he is confident the discovery will lead to new therapies in the future.

“Lung cancer has the highest mortality rate of all cancers with less than 12 per cent of patients surviving five years after diagnosis in Ireland. It is now the biggest cancer killer for both men and women,” he said.

“Our research has significantly improved our knowledge of the regulatory mechanisms that control the survival of tumour cells in the lungs and we are confident that it will lead to new therapies that target lung cancer and make it controllable in the future,” he added.

The research done by Professor O’Byrne and co is being highlighted ahead of the British Thoracic Oncology Group Annual Conference which will take place in Dublin’s Burlington Hotel from January 25-27.