The Society of Cancer Management
  • Home
    • An After Life
    • News Archive
  • About
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Copyright Notice
  • Contact

. . . supporting research that improves cancer survival.

 
Please contact us if you would like to contribute a news item. We are keen to publish more articles from UK-based research and findings that relate to microbial infections during therapy.

Cancer treatment as a double-edged sword

9/10/2016

0 Comments

 
Even with today's safer and more targeted anti-cancer drugs, scientists have been unable to satisfactorily explain the phenomenon of why treated cancers so often recur. The common theory is that the cancer cell develops "internal resistance to treatment," and overrides the toxic effects of the drug.
Now, findings by a team of scientists led by Professor Yuval Shaked of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Faculty of Medicine and the Technion Integrated Cancer Center (TICC) could provide the key for reducing recurrence, and allowing anti-cancer drugs to do work as intended.

In their study published in The Journal of Pathology, the team shows that tumor relapse occurs when the body, in effect, mobilizes itself in favor of the tumor, causing recurrence of the disease, increasing its aggressiveness and creating metastases or tumor spread. Even selective, highly focused treatments that harm cancer cells almost exclusively lead to a similar response.

"The administration of an anti-cancer drug is very aggressive intervention in the body," explains Prof. Shaked. "Therefore, the body responds to chemotherapy the way it responds to trauma. This creates the effect of a double-edged sword: although chemotherapy kills cancer cells, it also causes the secretion of substances that confer resistance to the tumor. Even more selective treatments, with fewer side effects, cause physiological reactions that increase the aggressiveness of the disease."

In this specific study, among other studies the group has published in this area, mice with multiple myeloma -- a malignant disease of the plasma cells produced in bone marrow and spread throughout the body via the circulatory system -- were treated with the selective anti-cancer drug Velcade (bortezomib). (Velcade is based on the discovery of ubiquitin, for which Professors Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover of the Technion Faculty of Medicine won the Nobel Prize.)

The researchers found that treatment with Velcade led to a physiological reaction that actually reinforced the intensity of the myeloma in the mice. According to Prof. Shaked, the drug caused inflammatory cells (macrophages) in the bone marrow to enhance the aggressiveness of the disease and provide the cancer cells with resistance to treatment.
​
"It is important to clarify that treatment with Velcade is essential and necessary," says Prof. Shaked, "but its disadvantage is that along with the benefit there is damage."

​Next steps: inhibiting the mechanism that enhances the tumor
​

According to Prof. Shaked, "…understanding the mechanisms that enhance the tumor and accelerate the spread of metastases will enable us to develop methods to inhibit them."

In fact, when the researchers inhibited the secreted factor related to the activity of inflammatory cells, they observed a decrease in the proliferation of cancer cells. Now they are working on various ways to inhibit the body's response to anti-cancer treatments.

"Ultimately we are talking about a trade-off between the intensity of the treatment and the intensity of the physical response. The moment the ratio is in favor of the treatment and to the detriment of the response, we will achieve effective treatment without a 'fine' in the form of enhanced metastasis. In addition, we can inhibit the body's response using existing drugs, thereby enabling the anticancer drugs to get the job done."

Beyar-Katz, et al. Bortezomib-induced pro-inflammatory macrophages as a potential factor limiting anti-tumour efficacy. The Journal of Pathology, 2016; 239 (3): 262 DOI: 10.1002/path.4723 [Abstract]


0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Cancer Therapy & Palliative Care News

    This feed features recent developments in cancer therapy and palliative care. Views in these articles do not necessarily represent those of the Cancer Management Society.

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

    Categories

    All
    General
    Presentation
    Research
    Review

    RSS Feed

Home

About

Contact Us

Terms & Conditions

Privacy Policy

Copyright Notice

RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
© The Society of Cancer Management 2017