Putting tumors on pause

Precancerous breast cells don’t degenerate into full-blown cancer when production of a certain protein is blocked, new research on mice shows.

The protein, called focal adhesion kinase (FAK), could offer a new target for developing drugs that would prevent benign breast tumors from becoming malignant, the researchers say.

FAK allows a cell to “know” about its surroundings by relaying signals from the cell’s outer membrane.