Malignant cells are able to fall into suspended animation

Resting cancer cells can "wake up" after decades

Copper news

Scientists have found evidence that cancer cells can "fall asleep" and thus escape from chemotherapy, and then "wake up" after a few decades.

The data were obtained by analyzing the case of a patient whose leukemia resumed after 20 years of remission. Scientists analyzed his blood and bone marrow samples from different periods of life: at the age of 4, when the disease began, and now – at the age of 25. They found that the cells of the primary cancer coincide in many characteristics with those found during relapse: in the "awakened" cells there was a specific DNA mutation, a fusion of the BCR and ABL1 genes. In addition, additional genetic changes were found in the new samples.

Scientists believe that the cells could survive because chemotherapy is aimed not at resting, but at actively dividing cells.

The head of the study, Professor Mel Greaves, director of the Centre for Evolution and Cancer at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London, commented that cancer cells are able to be at rest to avoid drug therapy. After that, having accumulated new mutations, they can cause a new round of the disease. This behavior pattern is similar to the functioning of blood stem cells, which can move from a dormant state to rapid division and back.

Scientists note that for clinical use in the future, it is necessary to accelerate the growth of resting cells so that therapy can affect them as well.

Article by A M Ford et al. The protracted dormancy of pre-leukaemic stem cells is published in the journal Leukemia; its popular presentation, Sleeping cancer cells can ‘wake up’ after decades, can be read on the ICR–VM website.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru29.05.2015