Immune System and Cancer: New discoveries could lead to new directions in Cancer Research.
It's usually believed that a depressed immune system can be at the base of a number of ailments and diseases, including Cancer. But recently, results obtained by a group of Scientists in the UK and Italy seem to contradict this highly shared opinion in Medicine.
The Scientists at the University of Bristol in the UK and at the Institute of Molecular Oncology in Milan, Italy, carried out their studies on Zebrafish, an organism maintaining many of the molecular and cellular components responsible of tumor formation in Mammals.
The results obtained by them seem to suggest that early-stage cancers are less likely to spread if the fighters of the Immune System, the white blood cells, are prevented from contacting cancer cells. In other words, immune cells could provide some type of growth signal for cancer precursor cells. So the cancer could co-opt the innate Immune Defence System to aid its own growth.
Using different methods to block the Immune System of the animal so to inhibit migration of immune cells to the cancer site, they always obtained the same result: a reduction in the number of cancer cells.
These results seem to lead to view Cancer formation and spreading through radically new 'eyes'.
What does the Future in Cancer Research hold on for us?
We'll see!!!
Sources:
http://www.reuters.com/news/video/story?videoId=169609172
http://insciences.org/article.php?article_id=9724
http://www.healthberth.com/2010/12/zebrafish-paves-way-for-new-cancer.html
http://healthmad.com/conditions-and-diseases/new-discoveries-in-cancer-research-could-lead-to-new-directions-in-cancer-cure/
It's usually believed that a depressed immune system can be at the base of a number of ailments and diseases, including Cancer. But recently, results obtained by a group of Scientists in the UK and Italy seem to contradict this highly shared opinion in Medicine.
The Scientists at the University of Bristol in the UK and at the Institute of Molecular Oncology in Milan, Italy, carried out their studies on Zebrafish, an organism maintaining many of the molecular and cellular components responsible of tumor formation in Mammals.
The results obtained by them seem to suggest that early-stage cancers are less likely to spread if the fighters of the Immune System, the white blood cells, are prevented from contacting cancer cells. In other words, immune cells could provide some type of growth signal for cancer precursor cells. So the cancer could co-opt the innate Immune Defence System to aid its own growth.
Using different methods to block the Immune System of the animal so to inhibit migration of immune cells to the cancer site, they always obtained the same result: a reduction in the number of cancer cells.
These results seem to lead to view Cancer formation and spreading through radically new 'eyes'.
What does the Future in Cancer Research hold on for us?
We'll see!!!
Sources:
http://www.reuters.com/news/video/story?videoId=169609172
http://insciences.org/article.php?article_id=9724
http://www.healthberth.com/2010/12/zebrafish-paves-way-for-new-cancer.html
http://healthmad.com/conditions-and-diseases/new-discoveries-in-cancer-research-could-lead-to-new-directions-in-cancer-cure/
