• Question: Is the loss of maspin only related to breast cancer, or can it be the cause of other cancers?

    Asked by u12jonesa to Dilwar, Lou, Rachel, Simon, Susan on 11 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Simon Langley-Evans

      Simon Langley-Evans answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      Maspin is a protein that stops cancer cells from spreading and this means that it can prevent cancers from being very aggressive. It behaves in a complex way and in some cancers it is lost (breast, ovarian, prostate) but in others more maspin is produced (pancreas, gall bladder or colon). Usually a higher level of maspin is linked to better cancer outcomes.

      Does that answer your question?

    • Photo: Louise Brown

      Louise Brown answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      Hello! Ooh a maspin question!! :)!

      Maspin is involved in lots of cancers! It is also involved in the heart and its loss is involved in the making of hard arteries (that lead to a heart attack)! The way maspin works is not yet understood! My lab have discovered a little part of it called the G-Helix that stops cells from moving about. When maspin is lost in cancers such as breast and prostate, the cells can move about more! In some cancers though, like ovarian, pancreatic and endometrial, the amount of maspin increases. We don’t really know why this is yet, which is why it is such a good area to research!!

    • Photo: Susan Skelton

      Susan Skelton answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      I’m a physicist, so I don’t really know much about molecular biology. So I’ll leave this question to the biologists who seem to have it covered!

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