/CNW/ - EMD Serono Canada, the biopharmaceutical business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany in the US and Canada, and Pfizer Canada ULC announced that Health.
Cancer cells ‘hibernate like bears’ to dodge chemotherapy: Study
January 11, 2021
Cancer Medicine Conceptual Vector with Dividing Cancer Cells in Sight Cross Illustration - Getty Images/iStockphoto
Cancer Medicine Conceptual Vector with Dividing Cancer Cells in Sight Cross Illustration - Getty Images/iStockphoto×
‘The tumour is acting like a whole organism, able to go into a slow-dividing state, conserving energy to help it survive’
A new study has found that the cancer cells present in the body have the ability to hibernate like “bears in winter” in order to evade chemotherapy treatment.
This finding also buttresses the fact that the disease often returns after staying dormant or disappears for several years after the treatment.
10 JANUARY 2021
Cancer cells are able to hibernate like bears in winter when a threat like chemotherapy treatment attacks them, according to new research – apparently adopting the tactic used by some animals (though long since lost in humans) to survive through periods when resources are scarce.
Knowing exactly how cancers evade and stand up to drug treatments is an important part of working towards defeating them for good, which is why understanding this hibernation behaviour could play a crucial role in future research. Cancers can often return after staying dormant or apparently disappearing for several years following treatment.
Preclinical research on human colorectal cancer cells revealed that they were able to slow down into a low-maintenance, drug-tolerant persister (DTP) state, which would help explain some failures in therapy and tumour relapses.
Cancer Cells Can Hibernate En Masse to Survive Chemotherapy
Colon cancer cells, 3D artwork. [luismmolina/Getty Images]
January 8, 2021
All cancer cells rather than just a subset can enter a sluggish, slow-dividing state if they come under threat. Then, after the threat has passed, they can wake up and begin replicating at full tilt. By entering and leaving a dormant state in such coordinated fashion, the cancer cells can defeat a round of chemotherapy and gain enough time to acquire resistance to additional rounds of chemotherapy.
Curiously, the cancer cells can act like an organism that is going through hibernation. But hibernation isn’t the right word. It’s diapause, a reversible state of suspended embryonic development triggered by unfavorable environmental conditions.
Virtual care during COVID-19 delivers impressive benefits for cancer patients, clinicians
Patients and healthcare providers at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre rated virtual care during COVID-19 as highly satisfactory overall for quality of care and convenience, while at the same time-saving patients millions in costs.
Research led by Princess Margaret Radiation Oncologist Dr. Alejandro Berlin showed that virtual care can be implemented rapidly and safely across a highly-specialized and high-volume cancer center. Eighty (80) percent of patients reported they were either very satisfied or satisfied with it, citing convenience as the main factor, with 72 percent of physicians reporting similar satisfaction with it.