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: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190604131124.htm
“The concept of
cancer metastasis has long been supported by the ‘seed and soil’ proposal, in
which it is theorized that cancer cells (seeds) are dependent upon the tissue
of organs (soil) to thrive in sites beyond their point of origin. This
hypothesis laid the foundation for why cancer metastases are more common in
certain organs over others, such as the lungs, lymph nodes, bones or liver. The
idea is that these organs offer a more fertile environment for cancer cell
growth.”
I SO get that, it’s
a relatively easy image to get into the
head regarding how BREAST cancer ends up in places like the lymph nodes,
lungs, bones, liver, and other organs – essentially the cancer cells break off
from the main mass in the breast, float through the blood and land in whatever
fertile soil there is in the body.
Sort of like
dandelion seeds…not only that, though.
At Virginia
Commonwealth University, a team of doctors have discovered USING MOUSE CELLS
(please note, this is nowhere near the testing-in-Humans stage!) that breast
cancer cells adrift in the body and landing in a different organ, change
themselves as well as the cells of the organ they land in.
However, this isn’t
a simple process. It’s not easily treated because it doesn’t appear that the
cells of the cancer and the organ being attacked change in the same WAY: “‘Multiple
pathways within the cancer cells, and potentially within the host organ as
well, may need to be targeted to inhibit the growth of metastases,’ Harrell
said. ‘Our ongoing efforts are aimed at identifying synergistic combinations of
drugs that inhibit the SRC pathway and other pathways that promote metastasis.’”
Some background
will help here – this particular effect, called “seed and soil” has been
observed before and researchers have tried to target the cells with drugs, effectively
killing them…and then having the cancer come back.
As whose who have
experienced the breast cancer “spook house ride”, we know that the spectre of breast
cancer never vanishes entirely, sometimes rearing its ugly head unexpectedly (https://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2019/04/guys-gotta-talk-aboutbreast-cancer-45.html).
So we’re not
talking cure here – but we ARE talking about making headway in the analysis of
WHY breast cancer cells hang around, HOW they hang around, and eventually
discovering a way to TREAT those cowardly so-and-sos….
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