Re: Scientists have discovered how cancer spreads from a primary site to other

"J" <studydras@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:43981B21.64B1349C@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> <http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Scientists-reveal-how-cancer-spreads/2005/12/08/1133829692282.html>
>
> Scientists reveal how cancer spreads
> December 8, 2005 - 10:09AM
>
> Scientists have discovered how cancer spreads from a primary site to
> other places in the body in a finding that could open doors for new
> ways of treating and preventing advanced disease.
>
> Instead of a cell just breaking off from a tumour and travelling
> 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.
>
> Intercepting those envoys, or blocking their action with drugs, might
> help to prevent the spread of cancer or to treat it in patients in
> which it has already occurred.
>
> "We are basically looking at all the earlier steps that are involved
> in metastasis that we weren't previously aware of. It is complex but
> we are opening the door to all these things that occur before the
> tumour cell implants itself," said Professor David Lyden, of Cornell
> University in New York.
>
> "It is a map to where the metastasis will occur," he added in an
> interview.
>
> Cancer's ability to colonise other organs is what makes the disease so
> deadly. Once the cancer has spread beyond its original site it is much
> more difficult to treat.
>
> In research reported in the journal Nature, Lyden and his colleagues
> described what happened before the arrival of the cancerous cells at
> the new site.
>
> "The authors show that tumour cells can mobilise normal bone marrow
> cells, causing them to migrate to particular regions and change the
> local environment so as to attract and support a developing
> metastasis," Patricia Steeg, of the National Cancer Institute in
> Bethesda, Maryland, said in a commentary.
>
> Cells at the site of the metastasis multiply and produce a protein
> called fibronectin, which acts like a glue to attract and trap the
> bone marrow cells to create a landing pad or nest for the cancer
> cells.
>
> "These nests provide attachment factors for the tumour cells to
> implant and nurture them. It causes them not only to bind but to
> proliferate. Once that all takes place we have a fully formed
> metastatic site or secondary tumour," said Lyden.
>
> "This is the first time anyone has discovered what we call the
> pre-metastatic niche."
>
> Without the landing pad, the cancerous cell could not colonise the
> organ.
>
> In animal and laboratory studies, the scientists looked at how breast,
> lung and oesophageal cancer spread. The envoys from the tumour
> determined the site of the secondary site.
>
> Lyden said measuring the number of special bone marrow cells
> circulating in the body could help to determine whether a cancer was
> likely to spread.
>
> "This opens up the door to new concepts of how metastasis is taking
> place. If we can understand all these multiple processes we can
> develop new drugs that block each step. That way we have a much
> better future than just trying to treat the tumour cell, which is
> almost like a last step in this process," he added.
>
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibronectin
> From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
>
> Fibronectin is a high molecular weight glycoprotein containing about
> 5% carbohydrate that bind to receptor proteins spanning the cell
> membrane called integrins and to the extracellular matrix. It can
> also specifically bind to other molecules such as collagen, fibrin
> and heparin.
>
> Fibronectin can be found in the blood plasma in its soluble form
> which is composed of two 250 kDa subunits joined together by
> disulfide bonds. The insoluble form that was formerly called
> cold-insoluble globulin is a large complex of cross-linked subunits.
>
> There are several isoforms of fibronectin all of which are the
> product of a single gene. The structure of these isoforms are made of
> three types of repeated internal regions called I, II and III which
> exhibit different lengths and presence or absence of disulfide bonds.
> Alternative splicing of the Pre-mRNA leads to the combination of
> these three types of regions but also to a variable region.
>
> Fibronectin is involved in the wound healing process and so can be
> used as a therapeutic agent. It is also one of the few proteins for
> which production increases with age without any associated pathology.

Thanks, J. Very interesting and intuitively reasonable; like a real life
politics.
>From the article, it seems that the cure is to discover medication that
kills that fibronectin.
As an extremely interested one and ignorant in medical science, I say - give
me an opportunity and I'll discover it in a year. :)


--
Regards,
Araik Margarian.
http://journals.aol.com/aramargar1/MyAmericanDream/



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