RESEARCHERS at University College Dublin have identified the gene that causes stomach cancer, the second most common cause of cancer deaths.

The discovery raises the possibility that the pharmaceutical industry will be able to develop a drug to “turn off” the gene, reducing the high death rate associated with gastro-intestinal (GI) cancers. More than three in four sufferers die within five years.

The researchers studied thousands of “live” tissue samples donated by cancer sufferers following operations at the Mater hospital. The scientists studied what genes were doing in the diseased cells, and whether some were highly active and “turned on” or dormant and “turned off”.

Using this technique, a team led by Peter Doran, director of the Genome Resource Unit at Mater, found a gene, NET 1, that was “turned on” in diseased tissue from stomach cancer tumours.

Their findings, published this week in the British Journal of Cancer, are that NET 1 destroys a protective layer of cells that lines the stomach and GI tract.

“We found the gene in tissue from patients, and when we compared the normal lining of the stomach to stomach cancer, we saw this gene was ‘up’,” said Doran. “So we set out to try to understand its role.”

The gene appears to help cancer cells invade the epithelial lining and cause the formation of large abnormal fibroblast cells that wouldn’t normally be there in such numbers or size. The cancer can then get through the lining of the stomach or the colon. Once in the GI tract it can spread, causing secondary cancers in other parts of the body. It is then impossible for all the cancers to be surgically removed, with fatal results.

If the gene is turned off, cancer cells forming in the stomach and other parts of the GI tract would not be able to cross the epithelial barrier. This means it would be isolated in one area.

“When we have taken cancer cells and switched off the NET 1 gene, we found that the cancer cells don’t invade,” said Doran.

“That is a hugely significant finding. We have figured out that NET 1 is driving the cancer, which is a very important discovery.

“We are now studying the mechanism of regulating that with a view to ultimately being able to inhibit it.

“We have tried for so long to kill these tumours and this is giving us a little opening. We are trying to push that door completely open and identify how to stop this gene working to cause disease.

“If cancer doesn’t spread, we can cure it.”

The scientists say they are so encouraged by their findings that they are exploring whether it has a role in other cancers.

According to the National Cancer Registry, the five-year survival rates for GI cancers in Ireland are 12% for oesophagus, 22% for stomach and 55% for colorectal.

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