Reversing Cancer: Breakthrough Discovery Turns Colon Cancer Cells Back to Normal

From top left: Department of Bio and Brain Engineering students, Kim Juhee, Jeong-Ryeol Gong, Chun-Kyung Lee, and Hoon-Min Kim pose for a group photo with KAIST professor Kwang Hyun Cho. Image Credit: KAIST

Until now, cancer treatment has mainly focused on eliminating or shrinking the cancer cell. However, this approach has shown its limitations such as the cancer cell developing resistance, leading to its return and causing destruction to normal, healthy cells. Yet, a recent innovative breakthrough has changed the future of cancer treatment, avoiding these side effects. 

Earlier in February, KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) announced that Professor Kwang Hyun Cho and his research team from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering succeeded in developing fundamental technology that can revert colon cancer cells back to normal cells. 

The research team observed that during the tumorigenesis process, when normal cells transform into cancer cells, the normal cells regress along their differentiation trajectory. This means that before the normal cells transform, they enter an unstable critical transition state where normal cells and cancer cells co-exist just before they transform. 

Building on this insight, the team used a systems biology method to develop a cancer reversal molecular switch identification technology that can reverse the cancerization process. The molecular switch works by manipulating specific gene networks within cells to trigger a reversal of cancerous behavior. Essentially, it captures the critical transition right before cells transform to irreversible cancer cells and reverts it back to a normal state. 

When Professor Kwang Hyun Cho’s team applied this switch on colon cancer cells, they were able to confirm that the cancer cells reverted to a normal state. 

Professor Kwang Hyun Cho emphasized that, “This is the first study to reveal that an important clue that can revert the fate of tumorigenesis is hidden at this very critical moment of change."

He further comments that the research, “develops foundational technology for identifying targets for cancer reversion through the systematic analysis of normal cell differentiation trajectories."

Though it is too early to say that the team’s research is the cure to cancer, it is expected that this technology will be applied to future cancer reversal treatments.