In a new hope for cancer patients, researchers have found a way to cause some cancer cells to self-destruct. The research team has identified a new pathway that works as a partner to a gene called MYC which controls normal cell growth, but when it is mutated or amplified in cancer, it sets off a chain reaction that helps tumours grow uncontrollably.

The pathway involves a protein called ATF4, and when it's blocked, it can cause cancer cells to produce too much protein and die. Published in the journal Nature Cell Biology, the study done on mice points the way towards a new therapeutic approach as inhibitors that can block synthesis of ATF4 already exist. "What we've learned is that we need to go further downstream to block tumour growth in a way that cancer cells can't easily escape, and our study identifies the target to do just that," said Constantinos Koumenis, Professor at the University of California.

According to researchers, this finding shows the alternative approach is to target ATF4 itself, since it's the point where both signal pathways converge, meaning there's less redundancy built in to allow cancer to survive. It also shows that ATF4 turns on the genes MYC needs for growth and also controls the rate at which cells make specific proteins called 4E-BP. This study also found that when tumours in humans are driven by MYC, ATF4 and its protein partner 4E-BP are also overly expressed, which is further evidence that these findings may point to an approach that could work for humans.