U.S. scientists are responsible for a medical breakthrough that could
prevent 90 % of deaths from cancer patients : cancer cells can be destroyed in
the bloodstream, preventing them from reaching healthy organs .
Currently, surgery and radiotherapy are effective in the treatment of
tumors in the early stages of the disease, but it is often difficult to detect
secondary cancers elsewhere in the body, until it is too late for treatment .
Researchers at Cornell University , USA, have found that the injection
of proteins in the blood attracts and kills cancer cells before they can spread
from the primary tumor to healthy organs.
The principle of the new method , described in the study published in
the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ' , is bind
proteins with cancer-killing white blood cells that travel through the
bloodstream.
When a cancer cell contact adhesive proteins , which is almost
inevitable in the hectic blood flow , which accounts for its removal .
" About 90 % of all cancer deaths are related to metastasis, but
have now found a way to send an army of murderers of white blood cells that cause
apoptosis ( self- killing cancer cells) , deleting them from the bloodstream
" explains the biomedical engineer at Cornell University, Michael King .
" Surrounded by these guys , it's almost impossible for the cancer cells
to escape ," he said .
The scientist has specified that the mechanism is surprising and
unexpected , since it has proved that injection of white blood cells is more
effective than injecting liposomes directly into the cancer cell or soluble
protein.
Researchers have estimated that the new treatment successfully kills
cancer cells in 60% of cases.
So far the research has been done on human blood in the laboratory and
in live mice , but not in patients .
" Much more research to see if the technique could actually stop
the spread of cancer in humans is needed ," admitted King .
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