St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Studying Cancer Gene-Stacy Case

There's still much t o be learned, but a leading tumor biologist at the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is studying the gene that can stop cancer.

It's one of some 30,000 genes we all have, but this one is incredibly powerful.

Unlocking the key to this gene could one day lead to better treatment and maybe even a cure for cancer.

Every day is a race against the clock for St. Jude cancer investigators.

With 5,400 children needing treatment every year at the Children's Research
hospital, most fighting for their lives, Dr. Gerard Zambetti has no time to spare.

He's studying the gene that stops cancer, called P53.

Dr. Zambetti says, "As things go wrong and the cell starts to become cancerous, P53 puts the brakes on that cell and pulls the trigger to kill that abnormal cell."

But when this magic gene doesn't do its job, children get sick.

It all starts with a defect in P53.

Doctors call it a mutation.

"Usually we acquire mutations over time and you can acquire mutations by what we eat, drink, breathe, smoke.
If you're born with a P53 mutation you're destined to getting cancer as a child or a young adult."

There's still much to be learned about P53, but Dr. Zambetti knows he's more likely to unlock the key here at St. Jude than at any other place.

After all, this is the hospital that's helped push overall survival rates for childhood cancers to 70%.

"They're just these resilient little people. I don't know what it is, but they handle the situation much better than we do and that's inspiring, just by itself."

P53 is so important, it's sometimes referred to as the guardian angel gene.

Dr. Zambetti will continue his work to understand how P53 blocks abnormal cell growth while looking at ways to keep it functioning properly.St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Studying Cancer Gene-Stacy Case