Most current cancer research and treatment involves finding ways to kill the rogue cells in our body to bring the disease under control. And there have been impressive strides made in this realm of investigation.

In traditional treatments though, most of the time, side effects arise because the body winds up losing cellular material and often, healthy cells and tissue die along with the damaged cancer cells. The collateral damage has typically been deemed worth it though, because when a treatment works, the cancer is destroyed and the patient lives.

Now though, researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed a different approach to combating the cells that cause cancer.

By using a digital model of the gene network of normal cell development, they found several molecules known as "master regulators" that are involved in the differentiation process of the cells lining the intestinal walls. These regulators are known as MYB, HDAC2, and FOXA2 and when they were suppressed in colon cancer cells, the cells switched back to a normal-like state, removing the cancer threat without destroying any cellular material.

The tests were carried out digitally, through molecular experiments, and in mice.

"The fact that cancer cells can be converted back to normal cells is an astonishing phenomenon," said KAIS professor Kwang-Hyun Cho, who led the research. "This study proves that such reversion can be systematically induced."

In addition to learning how to work with cancerous colon cells, the researchers also used their digital modeling program to discover four master regulators in the hippocampus region of mouse brains. Two of them were responsible for overexpression in the cellular differentiation process, while one was responsible for inhibition. The finding could be used to study and potentially reverse the spread of brain cancer, while the digital modeling tool could become a way to fight other cancers throughout the body.

"This research introduces the novel concept of reversible cancer therapy by reverting cancer cells to normal cells," concluded Cho. "It also develops foundational technology for identifying targets for cancer reversion through the systematic analysis of normal cell differentiation trajectories."