How do tumors originate? The discovery of some researchers
The common thought is that tumors originate from a healthy cell that over time acquires more and more mutations until it becomes cancerous, but a group of researchers from the Francis Crick Institute in London, studying the effects of air pollution, has made a discovery which marks a "new era" for disease prevention and treatment
That air pollution is among the causes of cancer is hardly a recent discovery, but now a group of researchers at the Francis Crick Institute in London has figured out how it happens. And knowing how cancers originate could revolutionize both their prevention and their treatment.
One of the world's leading experts, writes BBC , Professor Charles Swanton, said the discovery marks a "new era" because it "actually rethinks our understanding of how cancers begin."
THE DISCOVERY
The team of researchers found that, instead of causing damage, air pollution awakened old damaged cells.
BECAUSE IT'S IMPORTANT
Understanding how pollution affects tumor formation is important for developing new drugs, but also for explaining how hundreds of cancer-causing substances affect the body.
WHAT DOES NOT PLACE IN WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW ABOUT CANCER
The "classic" approach to how tumors originate, remembers BBC , believes that it all begins with a healthy cell that over time acquires more and more mutations in its genetic code, or DNA, until it reaches a turning point. At that moment it becomes a cancer and grows uncontrollably.
This idea, however, notes the newspaper, presents problems because mutations are found in apparently healthy tissues and many substances known to cause disease, including air pollution, do not seem to damage people's DNA .
WHERE IS THE REVOLUTION
This is where the Francis Crick Institute researchers who also work at University College London come into play. According to them, thanks to the evidence they have come up with, another explanation is possible.
The damage, they argue, "is already present in our cell's DNA, collected during growth and aging, but something needs to pull the trigger to actually make it cancerous."
The discovery came by studying why non-smokers get lung cancer. According to the data reported by the BBC , in fact, the vast majority of lung cancers are caused by smoking, but 1 in 10 cases in the UK is due to air pollution.
I STUDY
In their study, the scientists focused on a particular form of pollution and through a series of detailed experiments on humans and animals they showed that breathing polluted air causes the release of a chemical alarm – interleukin-1-beta – in lungs, which causes inflammation and activates lung cells to help repair damage.
The problem is that, in the lungs of a 50-year-old, about 1 cell in 600,000 already contains potentially cancerous mutations. And this would explain the appearance of the tumor. The cells, in fact, appear completely healthy until they are activated by the chemical alarm, which makes them cancerous.
The good news is that the researchers were able to stop the formation of tumors in mice exposed to air pollution by using a drug that blocks the alarm signal. And, according to experts, "the idea of taking an anticancer pill if you live in a heavily polluted area is not entirely fanciful".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/come-hanno-origine-i-tumori-la-scoperta-di-alcuni-ricercatori/ on Tue, 13 Sep 2022 13:10:17 +0000.