ViewpointA new biological framework for cancer research
Section snippets
A new strategy
Radiation and chemotherapy undoubtedly kill cancer cells. However the emerging evidence of drug-induced apoptosis and gene regulation suggests that from the perspective of tumour control we may have been doing some of the right things for the wrong reasons. Perhaps our benchmark of successful treatment should be restraint of progression of the cancer rather than attempts at total cell-kill. To paraphrase Sporn, rather than trying to kill Hydra, perhaps we should anaesthetise the monster.17 This
Management
Management of the individual patient echoes the processes of pathway elucidation and microenvironment simulation. The biopsy samples the process rather than the anatomical pathology. Abnormal pathways are delineated, and treatment is targeted to the regulatory defect. As in the example of hyaluronan receptors, it may be possible to manipulate the microenvironment and therefore the growth status of the cell. Further, since these receptors regulate signalling through ras, treatments targeting
Conclusion
We are not alone in the belief that the killing model, whilst having offered substantial advances, is not likely to lead to 17, 31, 32, 33 Where apparent cure is achieved, there is good evidence that other mechanisms are responsible, and that they appear to be regulatory. The emerging sense that cancer is a potentially remediable aberration in the continuum of normal cellular and tissue regulation opens a range of therapeutic possibilities. We are not proposing a “cure”, but the operational
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Cited by (48)
Phosphate toxicity and tumorigenesis
2018, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Reviews on CancerCitation Excerpt :Of relevance, casein is a phosphoprotein, rich in phosphorus; casein has been shown to increase the phosphorus content of laboratory rodent diets by as much as 50% [14]. In 1996, Schipper et al. proposed that cancer evolves from dysregulated metabolic control pathways rather than from autonomous growth of cells, and the researchers further proposed that this metabolic dysregulation process may be reversible [15]; for instance, eradication of Helicobacter pylori infection with reduced immunoinflammatory stimulus can lead to clinical and genetic reversibility of gastric lymphoma and carcinoma [16,17]. Furthermore, the potential may exist to regulate cancer cell growth and progression by reversing the dysregulation of phosphate metabolism.
Epidemiology of colorectal liver metastases
2007, Surgical OncologyCitation Excerpt :Indeed, Manfredi et al. [22], recently reported that, in 13,000 patients with colorectal cancer in the South of France between 1976 and 2000, the proportion of patients with synchronous liver metastasis increased from 12.9% to 17.0% and the proportion with metachronous disease fell from 19.8% to 12.2%. It is not only the intrinsic properties of tumour cells that determine invasion and metastasis, but also the tumour environment [11,12]. In particular, it is increasingly recognised that the host inflammatory response plays an important role in cancer progression [13,14].
Multimodality Treatment of Breast Cancer
2005, Breast CancerModelling in tumour biology part II: Modelling cancer therapy
2000, European Journal of Surgical Oncology