According to the information received from the Cancer Research UK non-profit organization, specializing in the fight against cancer, its experts have developed a technique for controlling the development of cancer by directing medicinal effects on the cells affected by the spread of cancer in the body.
As a result of the research, English physicians from Southampton University (England) determined that a concentrated effect on the NOX4 enzyme stops the development of cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) cells. The experiments on mice showed a reduction in the size of malignant tumors by 50 percent.
Fibroblasts are cells of connective tissues that are transformed into CAF and promote the growth of a malignant tumor, when exposed to cancer cell effect. CAF also increases the tumor resistance to chemotherapy and other types of cancer treatment.
In the course of studying the mechanism of tumor formation, scientists have been able to single out the NOX4 enzyme, which is needed by CAF in case of tumor development and the growth of various forms of oncological diseases. According to one of the leading researchers, Gareth Thomas, the specialists were able to determine the general mechanism of CAF formation for different types of cancer. These cells make cancer aggressive and difficult to treat, but the therapeutic impact on CAF opens tremendous opportunities for treating the patients, who poorly react to the existing methods.
Producing an effect on CAF with the help of medicinal methods, it is possible not only to restrain the rate of tumor development, but also to reverse the process, which will help develop a new highly effective method for combating cancer.
The whole world, the USA and China in particular, are practicing another effective method of fighting cancer that is developing quite rapidly, proton therapy. It is more accurate than the traditional radiation X-ray therapy; it is currently almost 10 times more expensive and requires larger areas for the equipment than the X-ray apparatus for irradiating patients. However, the method demonstrates high efficiency, causes less harm to healthy tissues and has good prospects for further progress in combating oncology.
