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Antibody prevents degrading of bones in rare cancer

Researchers said the discovery could lead to new treatments that limit the need for amputation in children and adolescents diagnosed with osteosarcoma.

By Stephen Feller

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Researchers found an antibody could prevent up to 80 percent of bone degradation caused by osteosarcoma, which could help prevent amputation in young patients with the cancer.

While most bone cancers are caused by metastasized cancer cells invading bones and stimulating other cells to degrade bone tissue, osteosarcoma cancer cells express enzymes and receptors allowing them to degrade bone tissue themselves. In addition to being rare, osteosarcoma is most often diagnosed in children and teenagers.

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Treatment for osteosarcoma includes removal of the cancerous bone, however researchers use radiation or chemotherapy to shrink the tumor and limit how much of a limb must be amputated. Researchers think the new antibody could help save more bone tissue and limit amputations.

"For cancer patients, especially children and young adults, amputation of an arm or a leg is a very serious consequence of illness and we have for years been searching for therapeutics to prevent cancer-induced bone degradation," said Dr. Clement Trovik, a surgeon at Haukeland University hospital, in a press release.

The researchers developed an antibody to study the molecule uPARAP/Endo180, a receptor that is important to the growth and development of bones, but degrades them when cells become cancerous.

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Researchers first tested the antibody's effects on osteosarcoma cells in vitro, to confirm their understanding of how bone degenerates because of the molecule.

Osteosarcoma cells were then transplanted into mice and treated with the antibody, which reduced bone degeneration by up to 80 percent in some cases.

"By treating mice with osteosarcoma with the new antibody, we could block the micro processes osteosarcoma cells use to degrade the bones and thereby effectively protect the bone tissue," said Dr. Lars Engelholm, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen.

The study is published in the Journal of Pathology.

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