Israeli researchers find that fat makes skin cancer more aggressive

In an article published in the medical journal "Science Signaling", researchers say that melanoma cells migrate into the body using fat cells located near the tumor, which promotes its proliferation in more skin layers. deep and therefore more invasive.

Carmit Levy and Tamar Golan at Tel Aviv University (Photo: Tel Aviv University)

The study, conducted at Tel Aviv University, examined dozens of biopsy samples from melanoma patients treated at the Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv and Wolfson Hospital in Holon.

The researchers found that fat cells transfer proteins called cytokines, which affect the expression of genes, to melanoma cells. The main effect of this cytokine transfer was the reduction of the expression of a gene whose function is to reduce the number of melanoma receptors.

Professor Carmit Levy, Department of Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, said, "The tumor can then better recognize melanoma receptors that stimulate cells and make them aggressive. ".

"Melanoma becomes fatal when it" wakes up ", sending cancerous cells to the dermis of the skin, under the epidermis, and metastasizing into vital organs," she added.

Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University

However, she added, "these processes are reversible and when we removed the fat cells from the melanoma cells, we found that they had" calmed down "and that the malignant cells had stopped them. migration."

Dr. Tamar Golan, also from the Department of Molecular Genetics and Human Biochemistry at Tel Aviv University, said the same substances are being studied in pancreatic cancer research and are already being tested. clinics for prostate, bad, ovarian and urinary cancers. "Our research also shows encouraging results," she said.

The researchers now hope that this breakthrough will help in the search for new treatments.

"Our findings may be at the basis of the development of new drugs that can slow the progression of skin cancer by using substances already known to the medical profession but never used for this purpose," said Professor Levy.