Old Metastasis Theory Confirmed

[Tom]

I found this very interesting. Perhaps some of you will also.


Yale University: New Evidence Supports Century-old Theory of Cancer Spread

M2 Communications

12-01-05

New Haven, Conn. -- A Yale School of Medicine study in the December issue of The Lancet Oncology challenges mainstream oncology researchers to consider tumor cell hybridization with white blood cells as a major reason that cancer metastasizes or spreads to other parts of the body.

"Cancer cells exhibit a remarkable number of traits normally attributed to white blood cells known as macrophages, including the ability to migrate to lymph nodes and distant organs and to form a new blood supply. Our data indicate that they do this by hybridizing with macrophages," said lead author John Pawelek, research affiliate in the Department of Dermatology at Yale School of Medicine and a member of Yale Cancer Center.

Pawelek said the idea of white blood cells hybridizing with tumor cells is not new. In the early 1900's the German pathologist Otto Aichel proposed that metastasis is caused by cancer cells fusing with macrophages. "There is now evidence to support all aspects of his proposition," said Pawelek.

"Macrophages are among the most motile cells we have. By co-opting the macrophage's ability to move, the hybrid is very different from the original cancer cell. It is able to migrate away from the primary site of tumor formation and take up residence in other areas of the body while it continues to divide."

Working for more than a decade with a diverse team of scientists at the Yale School of Medicine and other research centers, Pawelek concludes that there is now sufficient evidence for Aichel's proposal to be taken seriously by the research community. Pawelek's group began testing the theory in 1993, when they created hybrids in the lab by fusing mouse melanoma cells with mouse macrophages.

"Their behavior was astonishing," said Pawelek. "In culture dishes, fused cells were extraordinarily motile compared to unfused melanoma cells. They spread rapidly when implanted in mice. Even though the idea is virtually unknown to cancer researchers today, many scientists worked on it in the 20th century. From the late 1960's up to today there have been many reports of tumor hybrids."

"Aichel implored future scientists to study cancer cells 'from all angles' for evidence of hybridization," Pawelek added. "It is remarkable that a century later we are doing just that.

Were he alive today, Aichel would likely be both surprised and gratified, even though it might seem to be taking a rather long time."

[Gina]

Did you see this one??? This was exactly what I was trying to explain the other night. I will work on a more legible re-write to make my points clearer next time.

Thanks,

Gina
GPopp@Comcast.net

[Gina]

Yes, this theory is more in- line with the infection-based paradigm for Her-2 which intriques me. As the article states, it is far from "NEW" having been visited and revisted a number of times, but no body could prove it one way or the other. I have this fascinating PAPER article going back to probably 2000 or 2001...gee, I need a scanner for Christmas, don't I ??? and some lessons how to use it..smile..but anyway..in this research there was a young woman grad student who some how managed to tag and track these macrophages and proposes the more or less same notion, that the mets does not travel via the blood, but through the lymph system....fascinating research. Remember, that the tumor markers are just measuring--say in the case of serum her-2, the over-expression of the her-2 protein in the blood. That is different from claiming there is a cancer cell swimming in the bloodstream to another body part...fyi....

One of these days, if I only had the time and resources to pull some of this really good data together, we could all get so much further on this her-2 issue. In the mean time...all the more reason to be sure your zinc and therefore, your lymph levels are in good shape.

Thanks again, really an excellent snag...do you fish or just phish, smile???
Gina
GPopp@Comcast.net

Very interesting.

I wonder how many b/c survivors, who did not have lymph node involvement
suffered mets?

Joan

[Becky]

I would think that 5% to 10% would have a recurrance as the survival rate of early breast cancer is 90% to 95%. Just because a breast cancer cell didn't stay in the lymph node and grow into a tumor doesn't mean one didn't go there and scoot through and out (without sticking around to grow)


Just my thoughts no data (except the statistics which may be a percent off?)

Have a great weekend.

Becky