Slashdot Mirror
Scientists Unlock Reasons Cancer Spreads
* * Beatles-Beatles writes "Instead of a cell just breaking off from a tumor and traveling through the bloodstream to another organ where it forms a secondary tumour, or metastasis, researchers in the United States have shown that the cancer sends out envoys to prepare the new site."
Here's the link to the original article for those who have access: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7069/fu ll/nature04186.html
There's also a commentary in the same issue:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7069/fu ll/438750b.html
Greetings,
Hrshgn
The domains are all registered to the same guy, Carl Fogle, who like all search engine spammers is a premier-league asshole who was apparently never taught that enlightened self interest is supposed to make the world a better place for everybody, not be an excuse for screwing over friends and neighbours who rely on a shared resource.
Um London is the Reuters news source - if you read TFA, rather than the first word you would realise these were American researchers.
I don't read your sig, why do you read mine?
But then most (if not all) of the body's organs that rely on fibronectin will suffer if not die.
Targeting such a widespread protein is not the answer, and is not the answer that researchers are looking at. Otherwise there would have been a large headline stating that anti-fibronectin drugs/antibodies cure metastisis.
Google "Nixon war on cancer" and see what you come up with. Sadly, it's an example of governmental hubris.
quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.
I'm surprised that so many researchers still view cancer as a sentient malicious being living within a biological system.
Cells have a language that they use to communicate. They communicate with the cells in the other tissues around them. They communicate with the blood cells as they pass by. They communicate with the various cells of the immune system. This communication is constant. Every cell is constantly emitting and absorbing a matrix of cytokines, lymphokines, and other chemokines. It is from the interpretation of all of these different levels that a cell adapts and responds to its environment.
Cancerous cells are simply responding to their environment. In many ways a cancerous cell is malfunctioning. In many ways the set of chemokines which it emits acknowledges that it's malfunctioning. In a body with a healthy immune system the immune response is properly recruited and the cancerous cells are put out of their misery. This is why babies can grow so quickly with so little chance for deformity. The cells are communicating properly and the body ensures that any malfunctioning cells are removed.
In a cancer, when a cell begins malfunctioning, the immune system is not notified of the problem. The surrounding cells, when exposed to the proper levels of the signaling molecules, may be programmed to imitate the same behavior. I believe that this is part of a larger process that's supposed to work to increase the intensity of the signal and attract the immune system. If the immune system is not properly recruited, though, then the originating cells divide and become more and more degenerate and the increased level, intensity, and garbled nature of the signal aggravates even more cells in the area. When sufficiently aggravated without any response to attenuate the signals from the malfunctioning cells then more and more proper cells will begin to show signs of chemical stress and become cancerous, necrotic, or apoptotic.
In some cases the original cancerous cell may not be technically malfunctioning. That cell may be responding appropriately to surrounding tissue which has become numb and nonfunctional. This can be seen in bone cancers where the osteoblast count is at extreme low levels. The remaining osteoblasts are tired, overworked, stressed, and more than a little frightened by the absence of their comrades. Those cells begin exhibiting chemical signs of that stress meant to recruit the repropagation of other osteoblasts. If the situation isn't remedied, however, it's very easy to think that the osteoblast is evilly trying to metastasize. In tissues of high cell censity (kidney, pancreas, stomach, intestine, brain) it's most likely that the cancer is a result of a malfunctioning immune system. In a tissue of low cell density (bone) it's most likely that the cancer is a result of a deficiency in the tissue itself--maybe a logical sign of natural aging.
At any given point in time any one of us has a number of cancerous cells in our body. They're not sentiently floating around looking for tissue to victimize--they're doing what they've been programmed to do: survive.
The real question has always been: Why isn't the immune system responding appropriately? In most cancers the immune system is responding improperly or flat-out ignoring the problem. The studies of immunologists on the pathways of intercell signaling is very important research but sorely underfunded because research and study rarely leads to quick quarterly profit. There are easily hundreds of different intercell signaling molecules all tailored for their own specific message. The field is so complex that it's very difficult to quantify progress in the eyes of the business managers who have no conceptual understanding of the task or the technology.
fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.
There is biological premise for that. When a cancer forms to any significant extent it begins to recruit new vasculature. This process is known as angiogenesis and describes the legitimate formation of new vasculature as well as the formation initiated by a tumor.
Cancerous cells are cells which are malfunctioning. The lack of plentiful oxygen contributes to their state of distress and causes them to malfunction further. A tumor puts out a cocktail of cell signaling molecules which translates, in English, to "We need more air!" The bodies' natural response is to provide more vasculature. This is two fold: more vasculature allows the immune system greater access to the area to assess the problem and, if oxygen deprivation is truly the only problem, more vasculature solves it.
The prevailing question still is: why is the immune system not recognizing or not properly responding to the problem? I find it hard to believe that the systems of the body are into playing taunting games with each other.
fast as fast can be. you'll never catch me.
In evolution there has to be a reason.
Nope. Mutation is random.
Some mutations have survival value, and individuals manifesting those mutations will tend to become more prevalent over time. Other mutations are detrimentall, and will become less prevalent over time. Still others, probably even *most* mutations, have little effect one way or the other.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Metastasis is merely the movement of a tumor colony to another part of the body. Bone marrow cells are no more useful as a metastasic cell than as any other cell type, because cancer reverts whatever tissue it initially attacks back to a pluripotent state. What cancer cells DO is cause differentiated cells to become pluripotent. Every cell has the same DNA inside it, but most of the DNA is suppressed after development and only the specialized genes for that cell are expressed. Cancer arises when DNA suppression and replication machinery is hijacked and the cell becomes chaotically embryonic in nature, proliferating not only through wild replication but by abusing the cell's ability to produce hormones and other cell to cell signalling molecules. Carcinogens, oncogenes, and onco-viruses all cause cancer by essentially turning on a cell's replication machinery and reverting the cells back to pluripotent and proliferative states, regardless of the state of differentiation that they were previously in. If anything, my guess would be that bone-marrow cells are more resistant to cancerous agents, because they spend extended periods of time in a pluripotent state without dividing out of control, and probably have expression and activation feedback systems that keep them in check that other cells don't necessarily express.
Then please reread my earlier comment about this guy:
Ok, let's have a look at his george-harrison.info website. Aha, maybe the links at the bottom of the page? Yes, I see: http://george-harrison.info/reciprocal-links.html [george-harrison.info].
Sooo, what may be on that page? Quoting:
Looking at the link list (just a small excerpt):
HTH!
Windows is like decaf - it tastes like the real thing, but it won't get you through the day.
As far as I can tell, the article and the Nova special are talking about different things. The former is about cell attractors, whereas the latter is about blood vessel growth. Important, but different, parts of the puzzle.
I've always thought the wiser thing would be for a President to proclaim that we shall cure cancer within the next decade. Rather than the tired old Moo... er, Mars thing.
Been there. Done that. President Nixon launched a "War on Cancer" to find a cure within a decade.