WSU Cancer Researcher Likens Accidental Discovery to Detective’s Story

PULLMAN, Wash. — Washington State University cancer researcher Nancy Magnuson looks forward to the day oncologists—using gene analysis—can prescribe new chemotherapeutic agents to prevent or even eliminate malignant tumors in their patients.

Her dream may have moved closer to a reality when, in 1980, she and other researchers were working to isolate and clone a cytokine—a small protein molecule that regulates immune systems—but discovered an oncogene.

Intrigued by the discovery of a gene that seemed to keep very close company with cancer cells, Magnuson’s research took a new direction. “It’s like a detective story,” she said. “It’s nice to be able to discover something that no one has ever known before.”

“Solving the Mystery of Why Cancer Happens” will be the topic of Magnuson’s Nov. 16 presentation at Meydenbauer Center, 11100 N.E. 6^th St, in Bellevue. Tickets are $40 per person and include lunch from noon to 1:30 p.m. To register online, visit http://www.wsu.edu/theinnovators/. Registration will continue until capacity is reached.

The Herbert Eastlick Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biosciences, Magnuson is focusing her research on a gene that helps cells survive but which also causes cancer.

The gene, pim 1, and its product protein, Pim-1, a known promoter of cancer cell growth, are the focus of her research. Because the protein promotes cell survival, Magnuson believes that ability may also be the key to Pim-1’s role in promoting the production of cancerous cells. Solving that puzzle could lead to the development of chemotherapeutic agents that will selectively eliminate cancer cells.

In 2002, more than 31,000 people in the state of Washington were diagnosed with cancer. It is estimated that cancer or a cancer-related illness will cause one in four deaths this year.

Researchers, including those at WSU’s Cancer Prevention and Research Center, are working to discover how to intervene and slow or stop the spread of various cancers. The goal is that, even if cancer can’t be cured, it can be lived with, comfortably, for a very long time.

Magnuson earned a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and a doctorate in immunology from WSU. She serves on the board of directors of the Spokane chapter of the American Cancer Society, the advisory board of the WSU Cancer Prevention and Research Center, the review panel for grant awards for prostate and breast cancer research from the U.S. Army and the review panel for grant awards for the National Cancer Institute in Washington, D.C.