Chemotherapy – Hurt or Help Cancer?

By: Shagun Mohan

The most infamous illness that many are aware about is cancer. Cancer is when there is an abnormal, rapid growth of a certain group of cells. These cells are hard to control because they quickly alter themselves to make sure they continue to survive. Patients diagnosed with cancer are normally given chemotherapy, a treatment involving the usage of chemical agents to prevent the rapid growth of cancer cells. Chemotherapy can be given to a patient in two forms: injected through the vein or body cavity or given orally in the form as a pill.

Studies from the University of California by Anders Perrson and reports from Cell Stem Cell, however, show that standard chemotherapy may actually make a small, but significant amount of cancer cells to be more deadly. The studies involved the most common type of cancer in adults’ brains called glioblastoma multiforme. Dr. Eric Holland, neurosurgeon at Memorial Sloan Kettering, states that this cancer is shown to be resistant to standard treatments and the resistance may be due to small number of cancer cells, which is called side populations. Even though studies have shown that these side populations make up only 4% - 8% of a mouse brain tumor, these cells are highly dangerous because they are able to produce multiple types of cancerous cells with different properties. They have the ability to rebuild the entire tumor. This makes treating tumors a lot harder.

chemotherapy drugs

When this specific tumor was treated with a drug in the mouse’s brain,

many cancer cells were destroyed, but the deadly side populations survived. After the treatment, the side populations increased five times, from about 6% to 30%. When other researchers used another drug, the side populations were 75% of all cancer cells. This shows that the use of chemotherapy can be good in terms of killing the majority of the cancerous cells, but the side populations remain and multiply, which is extremely detrimental. Furthermore, other studies have shown that untreated cells took 40 days to form tumors, while treated cells took 25 days. The data shows that the usage of chemotherapy drugs can worsen a tumor and help the tumor to develop faster.

Even though it is still unclear whether these side populations of cancer cells have the ability to grow back to complex cancers, views on chemotherapy’s ability to kill cancerous cells are declining. Because of the side population cells, the chemotherapeutic drugs used to kill the cancerous cells are becoming useless. Since the side populations are able to produce different types of cancerous cells, each with different properties, these specific drugs cannot target each of these cancerous cells. However, since thousands of people are being diagnosed of cancer each year and are using chemotherapy to treat it, a new type of drug(s) should be created in the near future. It is imperative because many people are in a life and death situation and these chemotherapeutic drugs can either save their lives or kill them faster.

References:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/41453/title/Chemotherapy_drug_may_in_

http://medicineworld.org/news/news-archives//1629504841-Feb-5-2009.html



		Chemotherapy – Hurt or Help Cancer? By: Shagun Mohan The most infamous illness that many are aware about is cancer. Cancer is when there is an abnormal, rapid growth of a certain group of cells. These cells are hard to control because they quickly alter themselves to make sure they continue to survive. Patients diagnosed with cancer are normally given chemotherapy, a treatment involving the usage of chemical agents to prevent the rapid growth of cancer cells. Chemotherapy can be given to a patient in two forms: injected through the vein or body cavity or given orally in the form as a pill. Studies from the University of California by Anders Perrson and reports from Cell Stem Cell, however, show that standard chemotherapy may actually make a small, but significant amount of cancer cells to be more deadly. The studies involved the most common type of cancer in adults’ brains called glioblastoma multiforme. Dr. Eric Holland, neurosurgeon at Memorial Sloan Kettering, states that this cancer is shown to be resistant to standard treatments and the resistance may be due to small number of cancer cells, which is called side populations. Even though studies have shown that these side populations make up only 4% - 8% of a mouse brain tumor, these cells are highly dangerous because they are able to produce multiple types of cancerous cells with different properties. They have the ability to rebuild the entire tumor. This makes treating tumors a lot harder. chemotherapy drugs When this specific tumor was treated with a drug in the mouse’s brain, many cancer cells were destroyed, but the deadly side populations survived. After the treatment, the side populations increased five times, from about 6% to 30%. When other researchers used another drug, the side populations were 75% of all cancer cells. This shows that the use of chemotherapy can be good in terms of killing the majority of the cancerous cells, but the side populations remain and multiply, which is extremely detrimental. Furthermore, other studies have shown that untreated cells took 40 days to form tumors, while treated cells took 25 days. The data shows that the usage of chemotherapy drugs can worsen a tumor and help the tumor to develop faster. Even though it is still unclear whether these side populations of cancer cells have the ability to grow back to complex cancers, views on chemotherapy’s ability to kill cancerous cells are declining. Because of the side population cells, the chemotherapeutic drugs used to kill the cancerous cells are becoming useless. Since the side populations are able to produce different types of cancerous cells, each with different properties, these specific drugs cannot target each of these cancerous cells. However, since thousands of people are being diagnosed of cancer each year and are using chemotherapy to treat it, a new type of drug(s) should be created in the near future. It is imperative because many people are in a life and death situation and these chemotherapeutic drugs can either save their lives or kill them faster. References: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/41453/title/Chemotherapy_drug_may_in_ http://medicineworld.org/news/news-archives//1629504841-Feb-5-2009.html