Protein that helps skin cancer identified

STANFORD, Calif., March 21 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers have found that a protein that normally helps hold the skin together also helps skin cancer cells to spread through the body.

Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine found that a fragment of collagen VII is required for the skin cancer cells to break free from the neighboring skin tissue and spread -- a step that turns an otherwise benign tumor into a killer.

"When we blocked this sequence we also blocked the cancer from spreading," said lead researcher Paul Khavari. "When we blocked this sequence we also blocked the cancer from spreading."

Khavari said identifying the protein's role could lead to treatments that stop the spread of this deadly cancer, the second-most common cancer type in the United States.

The finding resulted from studies that showed roughly two-thirds of children with a blistering skin disorder called recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, or RDEB -- caused by a mutation that leads to an altered or missing collagen VII protein -- develop a type of skin cancer called squamous cell carcinoma.

Khavari said this led him to suspect the protein had something to do with cancer formation.