BRISBANE, Queensland Australia
(UPI) — Australian scientists say they
are studying the spread of
prostate cancer to the bones
using a three-dimensional model
of tissue-engineered bone.
Shirly Sieh, a doctoral student at the Queensland University
of Technology’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation
said she is studying the way cancer cells escape from the
prostate through the bloodstream to form tumor colonies,
most often in the spine and long bones.
“It is an innovative study which uses a tissue engineering
platform technology developed by IHBI’s Professor
Dietmar Hutmacher
in order to investigate the interaction between bones
and cancer cells,” Sieh said. “Tissue-engineered bone
provides the 3D architecture for the cancer cells (that)
more closely resemble bone metastasis instead of growing
the cancer cells and bone cells on a flat Petrie dish.”
She said it is still not clear how bones and cancer cells interact,
so she is growing prostate cancer cells on the tissue-engineered
bone to observe those interactions.
Sieh said scientists want to understand why prostate cancer cells
are attracted to bone sites.
She and doctoral student Amy Lubik,
who is supervised by
Professor Colleen Nelson,
are also studying the effect
the cancer cells in the bones
have on male hormone production,
particularly on the hormone androgen.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International
Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 9th May 2009 |