Sprouty Suppression

As MU’s researchers know, cancer treatment is complicated; progress doesn’t always move forward. Over the course of three years, associate professor Sharad Khare studied the effects of Sprouty2, a gene proven to suppress tumor growth in various cancers. In most cases, the gene blocks molecular circuits that contribute to metastasis, or the spreading of cancer to other organs, but Khare found something different: in certain cases of colorectal cancer, Sprouty2 boosts tumor growth.

Sprouty2 had been tested in breast, prostate and liver cancer, with encouraging results. “We presumed that the gene would also work with colon cancer,” Khare says. “But we found something surprising.”

The team tested Sprouty2 in different sample models, including mice and human biopsy samples, and found that the gene had reversed its expected effect: when Sprouty2 was activated, or up-regulated, it increased the cancer’s ability to spread.

Khare’s research, though groundbreaking, raises more questions than answers. The team believes that Sprouty2’s growth effect may only take place in a subset of colorectal cancers, and that more research would be needed to determine why the gene behaves differently in different cancers.

The study’s resulting research paper was published in Oncogene, a cancer treatment medical journal. The article spent more than a year in review before publication, meaning that Khare’s team needed airtight research to support their findings. Now, they’re hoping for help.

“We can’t do everything in one place,” Khare says. “We need to collaborate with other people who have different patient populations. It can’t be done in one lab, or at one university.”

Sprouty2’s unintended consequences in colorectal cancer highlight the difficulty in designing treatments — and, eventually, cures — for cancer. “We should not presume things,” Khare says, “like this gene suppresses cancer, this gene promotes cancer. We have to look deeper.”