Italians in lung cancer first

Italian scientists have made a breakthrough in lung cancer research that could pave the way for new drugs to fight treatment-resistant tumours.The researchers, from the Milan lab of the National Tumour Institute (INT), have found what they call ''malign'' stem cells that boost tumour growth and speed cancer cells through the body. ''We have found a presence in pulmonary tumours of high-potential cancer-boosting stem cells,'' said lead researcher Gabriella Sozzi in the study, which appears in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.The malign cells can be pinned down with a marker called CD133, she explained.The presence of cells that show CD133 means a much gloomier prognosis, Sozzi added.INT scientific director Marco Pierotti said ''this study lays the foundations for a more rational analysis of the causes of the scant success of available treatments for lung cancer''.''The possibility of identifying and studying the cells responsible for boosting the tumour could pave the way for new therapies, selectively targeted to eliminate them,'' Pierotti said.Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related death in men and women, responsible for 1.3 million annual deaths worldwide.

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