Anti-Met-astatic

As a receptor tyrosine kinase, Met can promote tumorigenesis via multiple mechanisms. It is activated when hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) binds the extracellular domain of Met, and Met signaling can drive cellular proliferation and motility as well as inhibit apoptosis. Because Met is upregulated in multiple cancer types, it is an attractive therapeutic target. Last week, two groups of researchers published data in Cancer Cell suggesting that soluble Met could function as its own therapeutic inhibitor.

"Genentech has long held an interest in HGF and Met," said Dineli Wickramasinghe, a scientist at Genentech Inc. (DNA, South San Francisco, Calif.) and senior author of one of the articles. ...