By Geraldine Ohonba
Researchers have uncovered a promising new avenue for treating bowel and liver cancers by targeting a key protein involved in tumour growth.
In a study published in Nature Genetics, scientists led by Professor Owen Sansom at the University of Glasgow and the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute investigated why certain genetic mutations cause cancer only in specific tissues such as the bowel and liver.
Hijacking the Body’s Growth Signals
The team focused on the WNT signalling pathway, a system that regulates when and where cells grow. Under normal conditions, this pathway ensures healthy tissue development and repair. However, genetic faults can allow cancer cells to hijack the system, enabling uncontrolled tumour growth.
The researchers discovered that a protein called nucleophosmin (NPM1) — which plays a role in controlling cell growth and protein production — was present at unusually high levels in bowel cancer and some liver cancers. This overactivity was linked to errors in the WNT pathway.
A Potentially Safer Treatment Target
Crucially, the study found that blocking NPM1 could slow tumour growth. When NPM1 was removed in laboratory models, cancer cells struggled to produce proteins properly, triggering tumour-suppressing mechanisms that halted cancer progression.
Professor Sansom explained that NPM1 appears not to be essential for normal adult tissue health, making it an attractive therapeutic target.
“Because NPM1 isn’t essential for normal adult tissue health, blocking it could be a safe way to treat certain cancers, including some hard-to-treat bowel and liver cancers,” he said.
Hope for Hard-to-Treat Cancers
Nearly 24,000 people in the UK die each year from bowel or liver cancer. With cases rising, researchers say developing more targeted and less toxic therapies is critical.
The team hopes the findings could eventually lead to new precision treatments not only for bowel and liver cancers but potentially for other tumours driven by similar genetic mechanisms.
Further research and clinical testing will be needed, but scientists believe targeting NPM1 may represent a promising new strategy in the fight against some of the most challenging cancers.
