Prostate cancer metastases: a new target
A new step in the treatment of prostate cancer at the last stage
asafharofe.ru based on the materials of MNT: Prostate cancer: How immune cells promote tumor growth
The results of their work can help in the development of new drugs and methods of tumor treatment.
Prostate cancer in the last stage often spreads to the bone tissue, and at this point the disease can no longer be stopped. In fact, 65-80% of cases of the disease metastasize to the bones, and the tumor becomes incurable, since the environment surrounding the neoplasm supports its development.
In a new study, scientists focused on the role of the immune system in this process and shed light on the so-called paradox of tumor growth. The results of their work were published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation (Apoptosis-induced CXCL5 accelerates inflammation and growth of prostate tumor metastases in bone – VM).
Scientists explain the paradox of tumor growth as follows: "Uncontrolled cell growth is accompanied by a high or significant number of cancer cell deaths. This death occurs either as a result of an immune response or as a result of cancer treatment. But the paradox is that increased cell death causes accelerated growth of neoplasms."
If you understand why this happens, you can prevent the formation of secondary tumor foci and stop the development of cancer.
A new potential cancer treatment
Scientists have studied a normal immune process called efferocytosis. During efferocytosis, immune cells, phagocytes, try to cleanse the body of dead cells. The researchers found out that during their "cleaning" the inflammatory protein CXCL5 is released and this leads to tumor growth.
In a study on mice with prostate cancer, they induced the death of cancer cells in bone tumors and found that this led to an increase in the level of CXCL5 and a rapid growth of the neoplasm. But when the scientists blocked the protein, the tumors stopped developing.
A drawing from an article in JCI – VM.
Scientists have found that the levels of CXCL5 in the blood of people with metastatic prostate cancer are higher than in patients whose disease has not metastasized.
The results of the study show that the mechanism by which the purification of tumor cells by phagocytes occurs causes constant inflammation in the microenvironment of the neoplasm using the expression of CXCL5 and other anti-inflammatory cytokines. This leads to the progression of cancer. The reason that the tumor cannot be cured after it has reached the bones may be the high content of phagocytes in the bone tissue.
Scientists note that CXCL5 may become a new "target" for cancer treatment. If you block the protein and attack the tumor while the body is being cleansed of dead cancer cells, this can stop the development of the disease.
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