Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
08/07/2012
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
Research says that treatment takes specialized cells in healing wounds around the tumors produce a protein that strengthens the cancer.
Research by U.S. scientists shows that a protein is linked to the mechanism that generates resistance to chemotherapy in patients suffering from cancer.
In an article published in the journal "Nature Medicine", the authors stated that chemotherapy leads specialized cells in healing wounds around the tumor to produce a protein that helps cancer to resist treatment.
About 90% of patients with cancers in the prostate, breast, lung and intestine suffering metastasis (when cancer spreads) develop resistance to chemotherapy.
Treatment for these cases is made at intervals so that the body will recover from the toxicity of chemotherapy. But these periods allow tumor cells to recover and develop resistance.
The study by scientists at the Center for Cancer Research Fred Hutchinson in Seattle, analyzed fibroblast cells, which normally have a very important role in recovery in cases of wounds and production of collagen, the main component of connective tissues such as tendons.
Chemotherapy causes DNA damage, which causes these cells to produce 30 times more protein called a WNT16B.
This protein is the "fuel" that makes cancer cells grow and invade tissues surrounding the tumor and cause resistance to chemotherapy.
It was known that this protein was involved in cancer development, but not in resistance to treatment.
Efficacy of treatment
Scientists hope to find a way to cut the response of these cells and improve the effectiveness of cancer treatment.
"The therapies are evolving increasingly to be very specific," said researcher Peter Nelson, who led the study.
"Our findings indicate that the tumor microenvironment can also influence the success or failure of therapy more precise," he added.
Fran Balkwill, an expert in tumor microenvironment in the organization Cancer Research UK said that this and "other research shows that cancer treatments affect not only cancer cells but can also reach cells within and around the tumors."
"Sometimes this can be good. For example, chemotherapy can stimulate immune cells to attack tumors. But this study confirms that healthy cells surrounding the tumor also may help the tumor to develop resistance to treatment," said Balkwill.
"The next step is to find ways to target these mechanisms of resistance and help make chemotherapy more effective," he added.
Source: G1 News
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This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.