U.S. scientists say they might have found a way to stop the growth of certain aggressive tumors for which there are currently no treatments.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory researchers in New York say more than half of human cancers have mutations that disable a gene called p53. When cells lose that gene, tumors grow aggressively. But a research team led by Associate Professor Alea Mills says it's discovered a way of stopping the growth of such cancers.

The scientists said their technique involves turning up the production of TAp63 proteins, which make up one class of proteins produced by the p63 gene. The TAp63 proteins completely blocked tumor initiation by inducing senescence, a state of growth arrest in which tumor cells are still metabolically alive, but fail to divide.

The scientists said they also discovered that by increasing the levels of TAp63 in cells that did not have p53, they blocked the progression of established tumors in mice.

"We were very excited to see that TAp63 shuts down cancer completely independently of p53," Mills said. "This means that we now have a way of attacking cancers that have damaged p53, which are very difficult to treat in the clinic."

The study appears in the journal Nature Cell Biology. (c) UPI