Paradigm Shift: Can Harnessing the Power of Healthy Cells Prevent Skin Cancer?

In an analysis of the behavior of cells in wounded skin, Yale researchers found that injury actually promotes the expansion of healthy cells which in turn keeps mutated cell growth under control.

Do simple wounds or surgery increase skin cancer risks by expanding mutated cells?

No, according to a new study by researchers at Yale and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Rather than promoting mutant cell growth, injury promotes healthy-cell expansion which keeps mutated cell growth under control. 

The findings are published June 21 in Nature.

By following the live behavior of cells in wounded and non-wounded skin and analyzing their respective molecular signals, the researchers found that injuries to skin activate a signaling cascade that favors healthy rather than mutated cells.

“This finding completely changes our way of thinking about cancer initiation and suggests that acute injury might actually counteract rather than promote tumorigenesis,” says lead author Sara Gallini, a research associate in the Greco Lab at the Yale School of Medicine, in a news release.

Going forward, researchers hope to design innovative therapeutics that combat cancer by stimulating cell signaling routes that enhance their selective proliferation of healthy cells and thereby suppress oncogenic growth, the authors said. Today’s cancer treatment strategies tend to suppress proliferative cells, a strategy that might inadvertently impair opportunities for mosaic tissue to deploy natural defenses against tumor cells, they added.