It might be possible to stop the spread of cancer by blocking these signals

May 23, 2014 11:52 GMT  ·  By
Researchers claim it might be possible to stop the spread of cancer by blocking signals sent by tumor cells
   Researchers claim it might be possible to stop the spread of cancer by blocking signals sent by tumor cells

Scientists with Johns Hopkins Medicine claim to have successfully identified several chemical signals that various forms of breast cancer rely on in order to recruit healthy cells and spread.

Experiments carried out on mice have shown that, by reducing the number of such chemical signals that tumor cells can send to other cells in the animals' body, it is possible to impair the cancer's ability to spread.

Thus, cancer cells whose makeup did not allow them to transmit all that many recruiting signals have been found to grow into tumors much like regular cancer cells do, but to have trouble affecting host cells.

Given the fact that, in the case of breast cancer, metastasis, i.e. the spread of cancer from one organ to another, is what kills patients, the success of these experiments comes as good news.

The Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists wish to carry on with their work and expect that one day their findings will help doctors treat breast cancer in human patients.

“Blocking one of these cell-recruiting signals in a mouse’s tumor made it much less likely to metastasize or spread,” specialist Gregg Semenza said in a statement.

Furthermore, “If a drug can be found that safely blocks the same signal in humans, it could be a very useful addition to current breast cancer treatment – particularly for patients with chemotherapy-resistant tumors.”