The diagnosis of localized bladder cancer carries an 80 percent five-year survival rate, but once the cancer spreads, the survival rate at even three years is only 20 percent. A major study published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation not only shows how bladder cancer metastasizes to the lungs but pinpoints a method for stopping this spread. Specifically, the study shows that versican, a protein involved in cancer cell migration, is a driver of lung metastasis and that high levels of versican are associated with poor prognosis in bladder cancer patients. The study is the first to show how that when a cancer cell makes the protein RhoGDI2, it reduces the cell’s production of versican, thus blocking the ability of the cancer cell to grow in the lungs.
