From the first moment my wife discovered
she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even
ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received
a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble
about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this
blog…
Every month, I’ll be highlighting breast
cancer research that is going on RIGHT NOW! Harvested from different websites,
journals and podcasts, I’ll translate them into understandable English and
share them with you. Today: http://breast-cancer-research.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13058-016-0712-6
The very first
sentence was startling to me!
“Cancer is now
viewed as a stem cell disease. There is still no consensus on the metabolic
characteristics of cancer stem cells, with several studies indicating that they
are mainly glycolytic and others pointing instead to mitochondrial metabolism
as their principal source of energy. Cancer stem cells also seem to adapt their
metabolism to microenvironmental changes by conveniently shifting energy
production from one pathway to another, or by acquiring intermediate metabolic
phenotypes. Determining the role of cancer stem cell metabolism in
carcinogenesis has become a major focus in cancer research, and substantial
efforts are conducted towards discovering clinical targets.”
WTH is a “stem
cell disease”?
Googling it was
pointless because all it turned up was USES of stem cells to cure this, that,
and the other thing. Not that they CAN do that yet, but the potential is there
and scientists are working tirelessly to find out exactly how to use them to
cure diseases like diabetes, spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s,
heart disease, Lou Gehrig’s, lung, arthritis, sickle cell, and organ failure.
Deeper digging
brought me to this: “Most cancers are now viewed to be driven by a population
of cells with stem cell characteristics…The subversion of molecular ‘stemness’
is now seen as a critical milestone, leading to oncogenesis.” Molecular Pathology of Hematolymphoid
Diseases edited by Cherie H. Dunphy [https://books.google.com/books?id=t5Wt0BeldmAC&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8&dq=define:+cancer+is+now+viewed+as+a+stem+cell+disease&source=bl&ots=J5OZNr62od&sig=n4OhxvyDatzcC8ULJGIZed13Kh0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQoMun_MLRAhVS72MKHSalBoMQ6AEIQzAG#v=onepage&q=define%3A%20cancer%20is%20now%20viewed%20as%20a%20stem%20cell%20disease&f=false]
So what does that
all mean?
The hoopla for
years is due to the fact that “stem cells” are like…cells waiting to be told
what to do. Usually, in the Human body, the cells are like this only for a
short time. That’s why there was a horrendous fight over scientists insisting
that the only place they could possibly get stem cells from is from Human
embryos. Everyone was girding for a fight for their research funding…when all
of a sudden, other scientists discovered that there were some of these “cells
waiting to be told what to do” in every one of us! “Adult stem cells have been identified in many organs and
tissues, including brain, bone marrow, peripheral blood, blood vessels,
skeletal muscle, skin, teeth, heart, gut, liver, ovarian epithelium, and
testis. They are thought to reside in a specific area of each tissue (called a
"stem cell niche").”
(https://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/4.htm).
Pretty much
end-of-fight with egg on the faces of name-callers all around.
So – apparently,
there are Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs) now. From the article I started with: “There
is still no consensus on the metabolic characteristics of cancer stem cells,
with several studies indicating that they are mainly glycolytic and others
pointing instead to mitochondrial metabolism as their principal source of
energy. Cancer stem cells also seem to adapt their metabolism to
microenvironmental changes by conveniently shifting energy production from one
pathway to another, or by acquiring intermediate metabolic phenotypes.
Determining the role of cancer stem cell metabolism in carcinogenesis has become
a major focus in cancer research, and substantial efforts are conducted towards
discovering clinical targets.”
WTH does THAT
mean?
Essentially this –
that there are stem cells waiting to change into active cancer cells. They need
certain things, which nobody is certain of yet. It APPEARS that there are a
couple of things they agree on.
First is that a
cancer virus (?) can grab hold of the stem cell’s ability to change into
whatever is needed – and turn it into a cancer cell. Second the suckers can ADAPT
like crazy to whatever the body is doing around them. Acidity? No problem!
Cold? No problem! Fever? No problem! The cancer cells welcome the challenge so
that they might laugh at the Human body and begin to grow uncontrollably. The
way they adapt is to shift their “power source”. Sort of like “Flex-Fuel” cars.
Whatever energy they can get hold of, they use.
Sneaky SOBs, eh?
The future may
hold new drugs that block the cancer cells from being able to switch power
sources. As well, there are also non-stem cancer cells, so chemo may still be a
normal cancer procedure. This research has primarily been looking at how to
prevent cancer cells from metastasizing – but from that research…who knows what
may grow?
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