The article In The Way Cancer Cells Work Together, a Possible Tool for Their Demise starts off by saying that "a tumor is a little society". The cancer cells that make up this "society" make it up by cooperating with one another, and thriving together. Scientists are only starting to decipher the rules of these "communities". But if they are able to understand how these cells work together, then they might be able to stop a tumor from progressing.
This may point to a new tactic for fighting cancer. In fact Dr. Archetti and his colleagues have been testing one out. They want to create a tumor within a tumor. The researchers are taking IGF-II producing cells out of tumors in mice and shutting down the genes they use to make growth stimulating chemicals. The researchers are then letting these newly created cheaters multiply and putting them back into the tumors. The team hopes that these extra cheaters will disrupt the tumor so badly that it will collapse.
I find this article very interesting. If the results are that of what they have predicted this could very much be Cancers Demise.
How do the researchers shut down the specific genes in the mice tumors? This is very interesting, and hopefully this research does lead to the end of cancer!
ReplyDelete