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Scientists have found out how the cancer develops
Last reviewed: 20.05.2018
At the Cancer Research Institute (London), a team of scientists found out the causes of tumor growth, they said, the tumor can receive additional nutrition from the adjacent blood vessels.
The results of the work have already been published in one of the scientific journals.
Malignant formations usually create a separate circulatory system that supplies nutrients to cancer cells. Modern cancer therapy is aimed at suppressing tumor growth with the help of antioangiogenic drugs, but a new study has shown that the cancer can receive additional nutrition from blood vessels located nearby, as a result of which relapses occur. Scientists have long failed to understand this process, but the English could find out that the tumor simply uses other ways of development - if the development of the circulatory system in the tumor is suppressed, it joins the adjacent vessels and tissues and uses them as a source of nutrients. This is what makes a tumor immune to anticancer therapy.
The findings of the scientific group were confirmed by experiments with laboratory rodents who had liver cancer. At the initial stage of treatment, mice received anti-angiogens, which effectively inhibited the growth of cancer cells, but eventually the cancer "attached" to the adjacent vessels, and the drugs were completely inactive. Also, scientists noted an unusual feature - malignant formations reacted to the end of treatment, as soon as rodents stopped receiving antiangiogens, the tumor again created its own circulatory system and continued to grow. According to scientists, this feature explains why some cancer patients have positive dynamics after some interruption in treatment.
English experts are sure that understanding the mechanism of tumor development will create effective methods of treatment and completely suppress the growth of cancer cells.
While some experts are trying to understand the development of cancer, another research group said that it is possible to treat cancer by activating the patient's own immune system. Surface proteins found in tumor samples will help to direct the work of the immune system against a cancerous tumor. After studying the DNA of the patients, the scientists came to the conclusion that it is possible to create a vaccine based on the proteins found in the tumor, which activates the immune system to control malignant cells.
But such treatment has not yet been confirmed by clinical trials, and the research team hopes to obtain all necessary permits for further experiments in the next 2 years.
It is worth noting that all previous attempts of scientists to resist cancer with the help of the patient's own immunity, were unsuccessful. Experts explained that the failures were due to the fact that initially the body was wrongly set the goal - the cancer cells mutate, and their appearance and reaction can be different. One of the scientists noted that the new study found that the tumor leaves traces that the immune system can recognize, so a new method of treatment can be quite effective, but most importantly, such treatment will be relatively cheap.
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