(Yicai Global) June 27 --  Chinese scientists have discovered an enzyme that may prohibit lung  cancer from creating secondary malignant tumors. 

Researchers from the  Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics and the Shanghai Institute of  Biochemistry and Cell Biology, both under the Chinese Academy of  Sciences, found out that UDP-glucose 6-dehydrogenase impairs lung cancer  metastasis, science journal Nature said in a report published  yesterday. 

Metastasis is involved in  95 percent of all cancer-related deaths, the report said. China has over  730,000 new lung cancer cases each year, and the five-year survival  rate is 16 percent. The nation is the largest tobacco-consuming and  manufacturing country in the world.

The study is a breakthrough in beginning to understand how lung cancer spreads. Previous research has pointed out the significance of abnormal cellular metabolisms in the human body as cancer cells proliferate but little is known about what catalyzes their growth.

Editor: Emmi Laine