Enzyme Makes Mesothelioma More Aggressive, Less Responsive to Treatment
There’s new evidence that a glycoprotein produced on the surface of some mesothelioma cells could have a major impact on disease progression and treatment outcomes – especially in patients with the biphasic form of the disease. Biphasic mesothelioma accounts for about 20 to 35 percent of mesothelioma cases and is generally considered even more difficult to treat than the more common epithelioid mesothelioma. Now, a team of Italian researchers from the University of Torino say they have discovered one of the factors that may influence the aggressiveness of biphasic mesothelioma. The focus of their new study is a molecule called CD157, an enzyme that has been associated with ovarian cancer. Because the epithelial cells of the ovaries and the cells…