{"id":10536,"date":"2023-11-16T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=10536"},"modified":"2023-11-03T09:38:35","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T09:38:35","slug":"cancer-has-many-faces-5-counterintuitive-ways-scientists-are-approaching-cancer-research-to-improve-treatment-and-prevention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/cancer-has-many-faces-5-counterintuitive-ways-scientists-are-approaching-cancer-research-to-improve-treatment-and-prevention\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancer has many faces \u2212 5 counterintuitive ways scientists are approaching cancer research to improve treatment and\u00a0prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Cancer cells don\u2019t follow the typical rules that allow a multicellular collective to function.\n Dr. Cecil Fox\/National Cancer Institute<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\nVivian Lam<\/a>, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

How researchers conceptualize a disease informs how they treat it. Cancer is often described as uncontrollable cell growth triggered by genetic damage. But cancer can also be seen from angles that emphasize mathematics, evolutionary game theory and physics, among others.<\/p>\n\n

Molecular biology has brought significant advances in making it possible to live with cancer as a chronic illness rather than a fatal disease. Alternative frameworks, however, can offer scientists additional insights on how to prevent tumors from spreading throughout the body and becoming resistant to treatment.<\/p>\n\n

Here are a few unconventional lenses through which researchers are viewing cancer with fresh eyes, drawn from The Conversation\u2019s archives.<\/p>\n\n

1. Evolution and natural selection of cancer<\/h2>\n\n

The body is far from a wonderland for cells. Each individual cell competes against trillions of others for finite space and nutrients. If they\u2019re able to cooperate in an orderly enough fashion, sharing resources and dividing labor, the collective functions effectively. Cancer cells, however, cheat the system<\/a>: They hog resources, take up as much space as possible and refuse to die<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

In this way, cancer can be thought of as an evolutionary disease<\/a> \u2013 these are cells that have developed the genetic mutations to outcompete their neighbors, and subsequent cell generations inherit this survival advantage. Cancer cells benefit at the expense of the collective until the entire organism collapses.<\/p>\n\n

\n \"Microscopy<\/a>\n
\n Most tumors are made of many different kinds of cancer cells, as shown in this pancreatic cancer sample from a mouse.<\/span>\n Ravikanth Maddipati\/Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania via National Cancer Institute<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

Oncologist Monika Joshi<\/a> and pathologists Joshua Warrick<\/a> and David DeGraff<\/a> believe that understanding evolution is key to understanding cancer. Screening programs are effective, for example, because removing a nascent tumor is easier than treating one that has evolved the ability to spread. Cancer cells likewise become resistant to treatments because they\u2019re pushed to further evolve to survive.<\/p>\n\n

Some researchers are applying the principles of evolutionary game theory to reduce treatment resistance<\/a> and optimize therapies for children<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe fight against cancer is a fight against evolution, the fundamental process that has driven life on Earth since time immemorial,\u201d they wrote. \u201cThis is not an easy fight, but medicine has made tremendous progress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Fluid mechanics of cancer<\/h2>\n\n

As much as cancer is a disease that respects no boundaries, tumor cells are still shaped by their environment. Unlike healthy cells that take the hint when their presence isn\u2019t wanted, however, tumor cells not only survive but thrive in stressful conditions<\/a>. Isolated cancer cells able to adapt to harsh settings are the ones that establish metastatic colonies and become resistant to treatment.<\/p>\n\n

While researchers have focused on how biochemical signals direct cells to move from one location to another, a cell\u2019s physical environment also affects where it migrates. Mechanical engineer Yizeng Li<\/a> found that a cell\u2019s \u201csolid\u201d and \u201cfluid\u201d surroundings influence its movement.<\/p>\n\n

Cancer cells encounter varying degrees of fluid viscosity, or thickness, as they travel through the body. Li and her team found that breast cancer cells counterintuitively move faster in high viscosity environments by changing their structure. This meant that fluid viscosity serves as a mechanobiological cue for cancer cells to metastasize<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

\n \"Animation<\/a>\n
\n The blue fluid on the left has a lower viscosity relative to the orange fluid on the right.<\/span>\n Synapticrelay\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

\u201cCancer patients usually don\u2019t die from the original source of the tumor but from its spread to other parts of the body,\u201d Li wrote. \u201cUnderstanding how fluid viscosity affects the movement of tumor cells could help researchers figure out ways to better treat and detect cancer before it metastasizes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n