In Translation

Profiling the Enemy
(continued)

She has also found a potential marker for invasive bladder cancer — a molecule known as Akt, which is controlled by PI-3K. In 40 percent of the human bladder tumors she has studied, levels of the activated form of Akt have been greatly elevated. Sweeney’s next step is to investigate activated Akt levels in a larger number of bladder tumors, to see if the molecule is indeed a reliable marker for invasive disease.

Such a marker would be a tremendous boon for patients. Doctors would know in advance which tumors have the potential to become invasive, and which tumors will remain superficial. Patients with invasive tumors would be treated as aggressively as possible. Those with super- ficial tumors could be spared that treatment.

A recipient of 10 prestigious research awards reserved for promising young investigators, Sweeney talks about cancer cells almost as though they are sentient. A tumor “takes advantage” of a molecule, she says. It “recognizes” an opportunity to invade. Cells “figure out” how to become malignant.

“Each tumor has its own signature, its own profile,” she says. “You do start respecting them, when you realize how complex they are, how they get around problems. It is a primitive intelligence, a primal need, a mechanism to survive.

“You do start to see them as the enemy.”

With the right profiling, it is an enemy we can defeat.

Xiulu Wu peers through a gel that separates proteins from cells for study.