Groundbreaking Discovery of the Cellular Origin of Cervical Cancer
A team of scientists from A*STAR's Institute of Medical Biology (IMB) and Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) together with clinicians from Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have identified a unique set of cells in the cervix that are the cause of human papillomaviruses (HPV) related cervical cancers. Significantly, the team also showed that these cells do not regenerate when excised. These findings have immense clinical implications in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of cervical cancer. The study was published in the prestigious journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The team discovered that this discrete set of cells, located at the squamocolumnar junction of the cervix, uniquely express biomarkers that are seen in all forms of invasive cervical cancers linked to HPV. This means that the signature markers of this population of cells can provide a way of distinguishing potentially dangerous precancerous lesions from those with a benign prognosis.
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