A new report estimates cancer will kill more than 7.5 million people worldwide this year, but through research great strides are being made.

Breakthrough research is happening right here in South Bend.

Cancer has been around for centuries. In fact the word cancer came from the father of medicine, Hippocrates.

Researchers are working round the clock to fight this insidious disease, and at Notre Dame, there could be a major breakthrough in diagnosis and treatment.

Dr. Crislyn D'Souza-Shorey and her research team at Notre Dame are discussing their recent findings published in the December issue of Current Biology.

Using breast cancer and melanoma as models, their research could have a profound impact on other cancers as well.

“This recent study defined a population of structures, microvessicals, which are sort of these little membrane sacs that are shed from tumor cells,” says Dr. D’Souza-Shorey. “These structures contain bioactive molecules that help the tumor cell to communicate with the surrounding environment.”

When the tumor cells communicate, they are able to escape from the primary tumor and get to other parts of the body.

Researchers found that a molecule known as ARF6, which Dr. D’Souza-Shorey studied a decade ago at the Washington University School of Medicine, promotes that shedding process.

“It turns out if you put ARF6 into normal cells, you hyper-activate it. It induces phenotypes that resembles what one might see in tumor biopsies,” said Dr. D’Souza-Shorey.

James Clancy, a graduate student working on the study, explains they got there by starting with normal breast tissue cells, working their way through cancer progression.

Vandhana Chari, a senior researcher in the lab, is the primary author on the research article.

She says previous studies showed active ARF6 can increase cancer invasion in cells, but what Notre Dame found was more.

“We basically nailed that these are microvessicals of a unique characteristic,” says Chari.

Researchers noticed that the cells that express hyperactive ARF6 shed more of particles that cause cancer to spread, while a mutant form of ARF6, which is supposed to be inactive, did not.

“So right there, it said to us that maybe it is doing something more important to the release of these vessicals,” said Chari.

Chari is finding that the hyperactive ARF6 particles have enzymes that provide a pathway for cancer to spread outside the tumor.

With new insight into how tumor cells invade their surrounding environment, there are huge possibilities.

D'Souza-Shorey believes their findings could be applied to treating other invasive cancers like ovarian, prostate, and colon.

Identifying how those signatures might change on these vessicals might also give you some idea about disease stage. It might tell you the effectiveness of therapy.

The findings under the golden dome may lead to a silver bullet for better cancer diagnosis with something as simple as a blood or urine test.

The D'Souza-Shorey lab is also working with area oncologists in this study, which was supported through a grant from the National Cancer Institute.

The Notre Dame research was published in this month's edition of Current Biology.

NewsCenter 16 will keep you posted on what happens from here.