The research group led by Dr Josep Clotet, professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and researcher in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at UIC Barcelona, has spent the past fifteen years studying the role of polyphosphate in tumour cells to identify new vulnerabilities in cancer. “For many years, we have been searching for elements that are specific to tumour cells and absent from healthy ones,” he explains.

The role of lifestyle and ageing in cancer

Beyond his group’s work on polyphosphate, Dr Clotet emphasises that cancer is a complex disease shaped by both genetic and environmental factors. “Cancer is often described as a genetic disease, but it is above all influenced by environment, lifestyle and longevity,” he notes.

He explains that the body produces altered cells on a daily basis which, under normal circumstances, are prevented from developing into tumours by defence mechanisms such as cellular repair, programmed cell death and the immune system. “When these mechanisms fail, what would not normally appear until the age of 80 or 90 can emerge at 50 or 60, and lifestyle is one of the factors that increases the likelihood of such errors.”

More targeted approaches to treatment

The researcher also stresses that cancer “is not a single disease”, but rather a group of distinct conditions requiring different therapeutic approaches. In this context, he points out that metastasis is increasingly studied as a process in its own right, as it remains the primary cause of cancer-related mortality.

He also notes that many forms of chemotherapy affect healthy tissue and can lead to significant side effects. For this reason, a major focus of current cancer research is the identification of therapeutic targets that are specific to tumour cells. “If we can demonstrate that polyphosphate is localised exclusively in the nucleus of tumour cells, we could be looking at a highly specific therapeutic target,” Dr Clotet concludes.