It also opens new avenues for additional research to better understand the biochemical pathways involved in this disease as well as stomach and other cancers. It's very gratifying to have worked in an area for more than 10 years, plugging along, and then be able to implicate a pathway that is important in the pathogenesis of a human disease. However, Coffey noted that the study of rare diseases often has broader implications. The gastric juice is typically full of mucous, and protein leaks through the stomach lining and is lost in the stool.
Patients typically seek medical help because of persistent vomiting and swelling in the legs.
No medical treatment has been effective and removal of the stomach is often required for symptom relief and to prevent the progression to cancer. However, because of a severe underlying lung disease, he could not undergo surgery. TGFa is a cousin to the epidermal growth factor whose discovery won Vanderbilt's Stanley Cohen, Ph.D., a Nobel Prize in Medicine. EGF and TGFa are among six ligands that can activate the EGF receptor, which Cohen also identified with Graham Carpenter, Ph.D., Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and Biochemistry. The EGF receptor is involved in the overgrowth of cells that is characteristic of cancer.