Caveolin-1 protein is involved in tumour spread in Ewing’s sarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer affecting children and young people

Nine out of ten cancer deaths occur due to metastasis, a complex process in which malignant cells from a primary tumour spread by the blood or lymphatic stream and form colonies in distant organs. During recent years many processes that cause and maintain the growth of tumors have been discovered, but there are many mechanisms that cause metastasis still left to be known. A study coordinated by scientists from IDIBELL has stepped forward in understanding these mechanisms.

The study, published in the US journal Molecular Cancer Research, links the caveolin-1 - a protein in the membrane of cells - with Ewing's sarcoma metastasis. This is a very aggressive disease characterized by metastasis in very early stages, which mainly affects children and youth. The cure rates are very low.

The research shows that caveolin-1 has a fundamental role in regulating the ability of tumour cells to migrate, invade the extracellular matrix - the environment where cells are - and colonize distant organs like lungs. This is the first study assessing the role of caveolin-1 in Ewing's sarcoma metastasis

Óscar Martínez Tirado, coordinator of the study and head of Sarcoma Research Group at IDIBELL, pointed out that "the results add significance to the function of caveolin-1 in the biology of Ewing's sarcoma." Martínez Tirado added that "until now we knew about its involvement in oncogenesis [malignant transformation process prior to the emergence of a tumour] and its resistance to chemotherapy and now we add its activity in metastasis."  A previous study published by the same IDIBELL group showed that caveolin-1 is responsible for resistance to chemotherapy developed by tumour cells of Ewing's sarcoma.

This disease is the second most common childhood bone cancer. It represents a two or three percent of all childhood tumours and has an annual incidence of 0.6 cases per million inhabitants. The prognosis of the disease is serious. It often spreads to other parts of the body, especially to the bone marrow, lungs, kidneys, heart and adrenal gland.

The abstraction published in Molecular Cancer Research opens therefore a path to develop new drugs to prevent metastasis in Ewing's sarcoma.

The study had the participation of researchers from the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute, St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee (USA) and the Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington (USA).