Cancer-Promoting Protein Creates Glucose Path that Feeds Brain Tumors

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have tracked down a cancer-promoting protein’s pathway into the cell nucleus and found out how, once there, it fires up a glucose metabolism pathway on which brain tumors thrive.

They also located a vital spot along the protein’s journey that can be attacked with a type of drug not yet deployed against glioblastoma multiforme — the most common and lethal form of brain cancer. The paper, which appears in the online edition of Nature Cell Biology, sheds further light on the importance of pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) in cancer development and progression. For more information, click here to read the full release.