Influence of Tumor to spread Cancer Cells
Cancer is a deadly disease that occurs in almost all species of animals and plants. It starts with a group of cells that grow and divide more than they normally do. When cells grow too much, they can form a small ball of tissue called a tumor. Sometimes, a few cancer cells move away from the tumor and entering the blood stream, can spread to other parts of the body. This process is called metastasis.
Signals in a tumor can instruct some cancer cell to detach from their neighbors and undergo metastasis. The host cells or the cells of a person with cancer that are near a tumor cell might send out signals called growth factors that tell the tumor to start moving. A group of scientists tried to understand the combination of signals that got them moving. Scientists used florescence microscopy to follow the movements of growing breast cancer cells in mice. They found that there were cells that were moving fast but they ended up not moving very far from their original place in the tumor.
Interestingly there were also slow cells. These cells were able to move much further away. For a cancer patient those spreading cancer cells spelt trouble. Scientists wanted to know how those slow cells were better than fast cells at moving far away from the tumor area. One of the materials in the tumor environment is the collagen matrix, which is similar to a spider web. The matrix web varies from being dense and thick to being thin and sparse at other sites. They found that sparse collagen web would allow the cancer cells to move fast.
In places where the collagen web was dense and thick, the cancer cells moved slowly. The slow cells were much better at spreading cancer than the fast cells. By observing closely at the slower moving cancer cells, scientists found that these were growing finger like scissors called Invadopodia. Invadopodia allowed the slow cells to cut through and destroy the thick collagen matrix around the cell and enter blood vessels and spread to other parts of the body.
Scientists created a computer program to study cell movement patterns. Some of the signals that the programs measured, where the density of the collagen web, the size of the nearby blood vessels and the number of immune cells of the surrounding area.
They found that the thicker the collagen web around the cancer cells was, the more likely the cancer cells were likely to move slowly. The closer the tumor cells were to a big blood vessel, the more likely it was that those cells would move slowly and cross the blood vessel wall into the blood. From there the cells could exit and grow in other organs (metastasis).
Even though the tissue surrounding the tissue cells is complex, these results show that the behavior of cancer cells can be changed by altering the balance of signals nearby. This finding maybe the key to better control of cancer in the future.
HOW CAN THIS HELP PEOPLE WITH CANCER
Scientists have proven the need to understand both the cancer cells and what is happening around them. By knowing the combination of signals that allow cancer cell to crawl and spread, doctors may be able to predict metastasis in a cancer patient. By tipping that balance of signals, a doctor may even be able to stop the tumor cells from spreading. Stopping tumor cells before metastasis would help doctors treat some type of cancer
Rasayu Opines
Ayurvedic medicine establishes homeostasis. They do not interfere with cancer cells in a toxic manner but works on the entire environment of the body as well as the tumor. Ayurveda works on the Rakta dhatu, that means, it addresses the blood stream in order to address the metastasis. In this process it starts to improve the function of liver and spleen which are the most important organs check on ongoing metastasis and secondaries. This further contributes to strengthening a favorable immune response. Rasayan therapy therefore provides a concrete defense mechanism against metastasis and fortify the immunity against further spread.