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| Professor Hubert Hondersmarck and his team have made incredible discoveries in the field of cancer. |
A team led by University of Newcastle Biochemistry Professor, Hubert Hondermarck has found links between tissue regeneration, nerve growth and tumour development.
The study confirms which was once thought impossible - the nervous system is strongly involved in the onset and spread of cancer.
"What was shown in our lab and simultaneously in other labs is that the nerves are necessary to cancer," said Professor Hondermarck.
"Cancer growth did not occur if the tumour was denervated and does not metastasize," he said.
The phenomenon has been demonstrated by several teams around the world including Professor Hondermarck's in prostate, gastric, breast and pancreatic tumours.
This new research could be the future of the fight against cancer and Professor Hondermarck believes they can start to block the invasion of nerves in cancer to prevent growth.
"Now the challenge for the coming years is to translate into clinical practice and see if it works," he said.
One aspect that Professor Hondermarck found particularly interesting from the study was that the role of nerves in cancer progression is very similar to what is observed during regeneration.
"As we know, humans have very little regeneration capacity. If you take a salamander for instance, and they lose a limb or tail it regrows.
"In cancer, if there are no nerves, there is no regeneration in the tumour. We found that there are links between cancer and its ability to regenerate," he said.
This research has opened the door to potential development in diagnostic and prognostic tools for cancer.
