New research suggests low oxygen levels may drive cancer cell growth

GRA Eminent Scholar Ying Xu and his colleagues at the University of Georgia have found that low oxygen levels in cells may be the primary cause of tumor growth in some cancers, rather than genetic mutations.  According to Xu, their findings could change how malignant growths are treated. 

“Cancer drugs try to get at the root — at the molecular level — of a particular mutation, but the cancer often bypasses it,” Xu said. “So we think that possibly genetic mutations may not be the main driver of cancer.”  In conducting the research, the scientists used bioinformatics techniques to analyze samples of RNA messenger data from seven different cancer types.  Read more>