New ways to keep cancer from spreading

One reason cancer is so deadly is its ability to spread throughout the body, in a process known as metastasis. In fact, your chance of surviving cancer is pretty good as long as it’s confined to its original site. It’s metastatic cancer that kills.

By Lee Euler / August 20, 2017

This means that understanding how cancer spreads is a key to developing better treatment options…

Researchers have been studying this phenomenon for more than 100 years, with very little ground gained. But that may be about to change. Mainstream medicine has made some promising discoveries regarding cancer metastasis and possible ways to prevent it.

Understanding the enemy: How metastasis works

Cancer is industrious. A tumor can send cancer cells into the bloodstream constantly, looking for new places to gain traction and set up shop.

Cancer often makes its first move into nearby tissues and lymph nodes. The cancer cells can then create new blood vessels, a process called angiogenesis, to support the spread to distant tissues and organs throughout the body.

Once cancer sets up in a new location, it can repeat the process, and so on again and again until cancer spreads all over.

While some types of tumors are capable of forming metastases in virtually every organ in the body, the most frequent target organs of metastasis are bone, brain, liver, and lung.¹ Once the cancer reaches these organs it’s late-stage cancer. It’s much more difficult, if not impossible, to treat.

Altering the Soil:
Using the body to stop the spread of cancer

One theory about metastasis that has held sway for a number of years is the “seed and soil” hypothesis. Developed by Stephan Paget in 1889, it states “that metastasis depends on cross-talk between selected cancer cells (the ‘seeds’) and specific organ microenvironments (the ‘soil’).”²

So like seeds and soil, as long as the body environment supports cancer cells, they’ll continue to grow and spread.

Breast cancer

In a study published in the online journal PLOS in June 2017, researchers turned their attention to the tumor microenvironment for answers.

They found a metabolite in the body called 20-Hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid (20-HETE) plays a role in helping cancer to spread. 20-HETE naturally occurs in the body and is necessary for metabolism, sodium and fluid transport to the kidneys, and regulating blood flow to the organs, among other processes.

Unfortunately, cancer cells can also use 20-HETE in angiogenesis, which scientists think is the precondition needed for cancer cells to travel throughout the body.

In the presence of cancer, 20-HETE also increases chronic inflammation, making the body environment a perfect place for disease to flourish.

To test a theory, the researchers inserted breast cancer cells into mice. Breast cancer tends to metastasize to the bones, brain, liver and lungs. Once the cancer established itself and started to spread (about 15 days), they injected the mice with a molecule called HET0016, which inhibits parts of 20-HETE activity.

They gave the mice a dose of this substance five days a week for three weeks. At the end of the study they discovered that administration of HET0016. . .

• Decreased tumor volume and lung metastasis
• Reduced migration and invasion of tumor cells in the lungs
• Decreased the number of pro-inflammatory cytokines and other elements that contribute to tumor growth in the lung microenvironment.³

These results show that HET0016 may be a promising way to stop breast cancer metastasis to the lungs.

Pancreatic cancer

In a study published in the July 2016 issue of the journal Cancer Research, scientists tested the efficacy of HET0016 on 20-HETE in pancreatic cancer cells. They focused on the inflammatory processes associated with 20-HETE, because prolonged and unresolved inflammation is associated with the development of pancreatic cancer.

Using in vitro methods, they added 20-HETE to pancreatic cancer cells and discovered it promoted pancreatic tumor growth and spontaneous metastasis. They also found that pancreatic cancer cells produce more 20-HETE than healthy cells.

Too much 20-HETE leads to over-expression of an enzyme that attracts macrophages, immune cells that are associated with increased malignancy in a tumor microenvironment.⁴

But when they treated the cells with HET0016, it reduced macrophage migration toward pancreatic cancer cells. This made the microenvironemnt less hospitable to the cancer cells and reduced the spread.

The researchers concluded that treating 20-HETE with HET0016 reduced inflammation, tumor growth and metastasis and could be used as a new treatment for pancreatic cancer.⁵

Immobilizing the cancer cells themselves

Researchers are exploring advancements in nanotechnology, the area of science that focuses on the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules, to stop cancer metastasis.

Scientists can reduce the size of certain materials to nanoscale, which is much smaller than the eye can see. You could almost say it’s infinitely smaller than what we can see. One nanometer (nm) is one billionth of a meter. A single water molecule is about 1.5 nanometers; a single strand of human hair is about 80,000 to 100,000 nanometers.⁶

The outside edges of all cells contain broad fibers called lamellipodia. They’re like little legs that help the cells move throughout the body as needed. (The suffix “-podia” means “foot” or “footlike,” from Greek.)

But cancer cells also contain an extra protrusion off the lamellipodia, called filopodia. Cancer cells produce both kinds of “feet” in excess, which means they can move faster and more efficiently than healthy cells.

So researchers are testing the use of gold nanorods on these “cancer feet” to stop the spread of cancer cells.

A nanorod is an element that ranges in size from one to 100 nm. Scientists reduce the element gold down to this tiny size, at which point the gold nanoparticles display different physical and chemical properties.

In a study published in May 2017, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta injected gold nanorods into cancer cells. When they did this, they found it delayed the migration of the cells. In essence, it hobbled the “cancer feet” so they couldn’t move very fast.

The researchers added another step of heating the gold nanorods with a laser to near-infrared light. This effectively stopped the movement of the cancer cells altogether.⁷

In another study, researchers at the same lab tested this method in a mouse model and found the gold nanorods induced apoptosis (natural death) in cancer cells, without affecting the nearby healthy cells. They also performed a 15-month follow-up and found no long-term toxicity in the mice.⁸

This treatment could be a vast improvement over chemotherapy and other treatments that destroy healthy and cancerous cells indiscriminately.

So that’s what’s happening in the world of Big Science. I hope these treatments eventually come to market and help patients. Meanwhile, our last issue talked about a natural treatment you can put to work against cancer right now. It’s one of the more effective steps you can take, and it’s good for prevention, too.

Best regards,

Lee Euler,
Publisher

References:

¹ The seed and soil hypothesis revisited – the role of tumor-stroma interactions in metastasis to different organs.

² The pathogenesis of cancer metastasis: The ‘seed and soil’ hypothesis revisited.

³ HET0016 decreases lung metastasis from breast cancer in immune-competent mouse model.

⁴ Abstract A13: Macrophage FLT1 mediated inflammatory response determines breast cancer distal metastasis.

⁵ Targeting the eicosanoid 20-HETE suppresses pancreatic cancer growth and metastasis through regulation of inflammation.

⁶ Examples of nanoscale.

⁷ Targeting cancer cell integrins using gold nanorods in photothermal therapy inhibits migration through affecting cytoskeletal proteins.

⁸ Efficacy, long-term toxicity, and mechanistic studies of gold nanorods photothermal therapy of cancer in xenograft mice.

https://www.cancerdefeated.com/new-ways-to-keep-cancer-from-spreading/6457/

Girl's donated organs help a record eight people

A 13-year-old girl who died from a brain aneurysm has helped a record eight different people, including five children, through organ donation.

• 8 September 2017
 
• From the sectionHealth

Image copyrightLAYZELL FAMILY

Image captionJemima's organ donations have helped five different children around the country.

Jemima Layzell, from Somerset, who died in 2012, donated her heart, pancreas, lungs, kidneys, small bowel and liver.

Jemima's parents said she was clever, compassionate and creative - and would have been "very proud of her legacy".

NHS Blood and Transplant said no other donor had helped as many people.

Jemima collapsed during preparations for her mum's 38th birthday party and died four days later at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.

Her heart, small bowel, and pancreas were transplanted into three different people while two people received her kidneys.

Her liver was split and transplanted into a further two people, and both of her lungs were transplanted into one patient.

Normally, a donation results in 2.6 transplants - eight is very unusual.

'Special and unique'

Jemima's mum Sophy Layzell, 43, a drama tutor, and dad Harvey Layzell, 49, managing director of a building firm, said they knew Jemima was willing to be a donor because they had spoken about it a couple of weeks before her death, after someone they knew died in a crash.

Sophy said: "They were on the register but their organs couldn't be donated because of the circumstances of their death.

"Jemima had never heard of organ donation before and found it a little bit unsettling but totally understood the importance of it."

She said they still found the decision to donate their daughter's organs hard, but felt it was right.

Image copyrightLAYZELL FAMILY

Image captionJemima's family have set up a trust in her name to promote organ donation

"Everyone wants their child to be special and unique and this among other things makes us very proud.

"Shortly after Jemima died, we watched a programme about children awaiting heart transplants and being fitted with Berlin Hearts in Great Ormond Street Hospital.

"It affirmed for us that saying 'no' would have been denying eight other people the chance for life, especially over Jemima's heart, which Harvey had felt uncomfortable about donating at the time."

What is a brain aneurysm?

An aneurysm is a bulge in a blood vessel caused by a weakness in the blood vessel wall.

It can develop anywhere in the body, but most commonly in the brain and around the heart.

In the brain, if the ballooning blood vessel bursts, extensive bleeding causes severe brain damage - and usually results in death or serious disability.

There are usually no signs of the problem before the aneurysm ruptures.

Aneurysms in children are rare and it is still not clear why blood vessels weaken to make them form.

Jemima's parents said it was very important for families to talk about organ donation.

"Every parent's instinct is to say no, as we are programmed to protect our child. It's only with prior knowledge of Jemima's agreement that we were able to say yes.

"Jemima was lovely - clever, funny, compassionate and creative - and we feel sure she would be very proud of her legacy," Sophy said.

'Too many say no'

Sophy, Harvey, and Jemima's sister Amelia, aged 17, now run The Jemima Layzell Trust, which helps young people with brain injuries and also promotes organ donation.

NHS Blood and Transplant said hundreds of people were still dying unnecessarily while waiting for a transplant because too many families said no to organ donation.

Last year, 457 people died waiting for a transplant, including 14 children.

There are currently 6,414 people on the transplant waiting list, including 176 children.

In 2015, 22-year-old Tom Wilson died in a freak accident after he was hit on the head by a hockey stick.

His donated organs, as well as skin, bone and tissue, are thought to have helped the lives of around 50 people.

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-41187008

Alarm as 'super malaria' spreads in South East Asia

The rapid spread of "super malaria" in South East Asia is an alarming global threat, scientists are warning.

By James GallagherHealth and science reporter, BBC News website

Malaria is caused by a parasite spread by blood-sucking mosquitoes

This dangerous form of the malaria parasite cannot be killed with the main anti-malaria drugs.

It emerged in Cambodia but has since spread through parts of Thailand, Laos and has arrived in southern Vietnam.

The team at the Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit in Bangkok said there was a real danger of malaria becoming untreatable.

Prof Arjen Dondorp, the head of the unit, told the BBC News website: "We think it is a serious threat.

"It is alarming that this strain is spreading so quickly through the whole region and we fear it can spread further [and eventually] jump to Africa."

Failing treatments

In a letter, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, the researchers detail the "recent sinister development" that has seen resistance to the drug artemisinin emerge.

About 212 million people are infected with malaria each year. It is caused by a parasite that is spread by blood-sucking mosquitoes and is a major killer of children.

The first choice treatment for malaria is artemisinin in combination with piperaquine.

But as artemisinin has become less effective, the parasite has now evolved to resist piperaquine too.

There have now been "alarming rates of failure", the letter says.

Prof Dondorp said the treatment was failing around a third of the time in Vietnam while in some regions of Cambodia the failure rate was closer to 60%.

Resistance to the drugs would be catastrophic in Africa, where 92% of all malaria cases happen.

'Against the clock'

There is a push to eliminate malaria in the Greater Mekong sub-region before it is too late.

Prof Dondorp added: "It's a race against the clock - we have to eliminate it before malaria becomes untreatable again and we see a lot of deaths.

"If I'm honest, I'm quite worried."

Michael Chew, from the Wellcome Trust medical research charity, said: "The spread of this malaria 'superbug' strain, resistant to the most effective drug we have, is alarming and has major implications for public health globally.

"Around 700,000 people a year die from drug-resistant infections, including malaria.

"If nothing is done, this could increase to millions of people every year by 2050."

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-41351160