I found this to be interesting.... Time to Rethink Chemotherapy? 15 June 2012 For cancer patients undergoing treatment, the ups and downs can feel like living through one of those B-level movies where the zombies just never seem to die: Victories of remission can quickly end in disappointment as the cancer returns once more. Why this happens has long puzzled scientists around the globe, but a new multi-center team in Israel whittles the problem down to the roots of where cancer begins.
The Israeli researchers built a unique "family tree" of leukemia cells from living cancer patients to understand more about how cancer cells divide, spread and can outlast chemotherapy treatments. This world's-first will likely have profound implications for the way leukemia and other cancers are treated in the future, the researchers expect. Until now, there have been two main theories about why some cancers return after treatment. The Israeli study results may just put this debate to bed. One theory is that chemotherapy can't kill each and every cancer cell. The few cancer cells left behind eventually divide out of control again, leading to a relapse. The other theory is that while chemotherapy may be good at killing run-of-the-mill cancer cells that divide rapidly, it fails to vanquish slow-dividing cancer stem cells. This second theory was supported by the evidence. Investigating the genetics of leukemia cells with the aid of computational biology, the researchers came to a new conclusion: "We know that in many cases, chemotherapy alone is not able to cure leukemia. Our results suggest that to completely eliminate it, we must look for a treatment that will not only eliminate the rapidly dividing cells, but also target the cancer stem cells that are resistant to conventional treatment," said Ehud Shapiro from the Weizmann Institute of Science. According to the researchers, this new finding can help lead to a new approach aimed at completely rooting out the cancer stem cells. Since chemotherapy most commonly targets only rapidly dividing cells, this would represent a paradigm shift in attacking cancer. (Excerpts of an article by Karin Kloosterman, Israel21c.org, June 14, 2012) -- [CMLHope] A support group of http://cmlhope.com ------------------------------------------------- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CMLHope" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/CMLHope
