Scientists are figuring out how to make cancer cells self

Scientists may have found a new target to help slow the spread of cancer—a protein that can be manipulated to make cancerous cells self-destruct.

Two new papers published in Nature show that researchers are homing in on ferroptosis suppressor protein 1 (FSP1), an enzyme that provides one of our body’s strongest defenses against a specific type of cell death that breaks down a cell from the inside out. Disarming this enzyme makes cells more likely to die off—and if disarmed in cancerous cells, that may stop tumors from growing so fast.

The research teams, one led by Harvard University and another by New York University, found that when they blocked FSP1 in lymph nodes and lung tumors in live mice with cancer, the tumors grew at a significantly slower rate compared to controls.