Flat-fish could hold key to liver cancer

07 October 2004 06:45

The humble flat-fish could hold the key to the diagnosis and cure of liver cancer in humans, it was claimed yesterday.

Scientists from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) in Pakefield, near Lowestoft, are working with cancer experts from Cancer Research UK (CRUK) to study the fish.

They are using techniques aimed at diagnosing and curing liver cancer.

Personalised or "bespoke" treatments for individual patients may be the result.

CEFAS scientists have found high levels of tumour in flounder and dab fish taken from the open sea and industrial estuaries, which show clear similarities with human liver cancer.

Fish tumours are very similar to those of more complex animals, such as primates and humans.

Using techniques hailed as the next frontier in molecular biology, they can study the proteins in the fish tumours and identify environmental 'stressors' or causes.

The techniques, known as proteomics, enable researchers to compare thousands of proteins found in cancer tissue to those found in normal tissue.

Particular stressors on organisms in a range of environments can be investigated, potentially leading to the identification of 'protein profiles' that are characteristic of particular stressors.

These profiles or 'biomarkers' can pinpoint specific causes, for example carcinogens linked to pollution that might be responsible for changes in the tissues.

More than half of the 50,000 living vertebrate species are fish, and the occurrence of liver tumours in certain fish species are linked with certain environmental triggers.

The scientists also hope to show that changes occurring during cancer development in fish and other animals will potentially be directly comparable with those occurring in humans.

CEFAS scientist, Dr Grant Stentiford, said the new techniques are creating a "whole new arena" of study.

"These new technologies are being used to gain a better understanding of human diseases, such as cancer, and are now opening up a whole new arena of opportunity for the study of disease in fish," he said.

"By combining our findings, medical and environmental scientists can make great advances in discovering the changes occurring during cancer formation and, perhaps, also in treating the disease once it has formed."

Prof Philip Johnson, from CRUK's institute of Cancer Studies said the collaboration between fish and human specialists shows "great promise".

"Collaboration between research workers studying human and fish cancers holds great promise for increasing our understanding of the relationship between environmental toxins and liver cancer in man."

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