Hello, dear HER2 family,
I have been away, checking in occasionally, but am doing well on X/T/H. I am in the normal range on this protocol and find it much easier than Taxol & Herceptin as it is mainly pill form and there are no steriods (pre-meds). So, you CAN get there with Xeloda, Tykerb and Herceptin. Let's hope it lasts. And thank you so much for those of you who wrote such warm thoughts to me with respect to 9/11. Amazing that you all remembered. It shows what great relationships we have built, some spanning across the globe. My dear friend sent me this article this morning and I had to share:
Scientists identify stress receptor that stimulates growth and migration of cancer cells
Published on September 22, 2011 at 12:32 AM · No Comments
It's a common belief that there's a link between chronic stress and an increased risk of
cancer. In new research published online by the
International Journal of Cancer, scientists at The University of Western Ontario have taken a step toward confirming that belief.
Research led by Dwayne Jackson of the Departments of Medical biophysics and Biomedical Engineering has identified a particular neurotransmitter released in response to stress, that stimulates both
cancer cell growth and migration in
breast cancer.
Working with Ph.D candidate Philip Medeiros, Jackson looked at a branch of the
nervous system called the sympathetic
nervous system, and how it "talks" to cells in various organs throughout the body. When the sympathetic
nervous system is activated, like it is during stress, it communicates with receptors on cells through the release of neurotransmitters called norepinephrine and neuropeptide Y or NPY. This is a normal response that prepares the body for "fight or flight".
"We have all heard anecdotally that stress causes
cancer. Our lab is particularly interested in how chronic stress may cause increases in the release of NPY and whether that may contribute to the progression of
breast cancer," explains Jackson, an Assistant Professor at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. "It has been shown that women with a familial history of
breast cancer exhibit greater physiological stress responses to normal everyday stressors. Since there is a very dense supply of sympathetic nerves in the female breast, it would be reasonable to suspect that NPY may be released in greater amounts in the breasts of those at risk for
breast cancer. Thus, we postulated if
cancer cells are present and they respond to NPY, then this neuropeptide and its receptors would form a functional link between stress and
breast cancer progression."
"Once we had established that
breast cancer cells express the receptors for NPY, then we went through a set of experiments that looked at the functional consequences of activating them. We found NPY greatly accelerates cell growth as well as cell migration and these are two important steps in primary tumour growth, as well as in
metastasis," concludes Medeiros.
Source:
University of Western Ontario
Sent with sisterly love,
Karen
Threaded Mode