(Key points: For a long time the doctors and scientists have focused their attentions only on killing or removing cancer lesions. The results are not good as many patients, especially who have late stage cancers, are continually losing their lives. One of several future plans is to bring products which will disable cancer’s motility to the market.)
Why do cancers kill so many patients? The answer is quite simple. It is because cancer can move around either by metastasizing to remote locations or evading into the neighbor tissues. If this ability is blocked or eliminated altogether, then cancer will become a local problem being much easily managed.
However, all of current treatment options either focus on killing cancer cells, most often killing normal cells at the same time, or removing tumors, there is not any effective option available to deal with cancer mobility. Many new therapies like Iressa and several antibodies still use the killing strategy. Doctors and scientists may think the reason we don’t have such drug simply because we don’t understand well why cancer cells can move around. This excuse is half-true. In my not so humble opinion people, especially people in pharmaceutical industry really don’t consider this option is worthy to pursue when cancer is still left in the original place, even its mobility being disarmed.
Well, when so many patients continually die because there is no one method for cure, it is time to have a strategy review on how to deal with cancer, even it may not so sexy at the first glance like the method and treatment stopping cancer cells moving around. Cancer cells and other normal cells both have mobility. But cancer cells do have its unique mechanism in motility which is different from normal cells. That will severe as a target point which may bring cancer to its knee.
A group I used to collaborate is one of the premier research centers in the field of cancer cell motility. I am confident we can bring products which will disable cancer cell motility to the market. Cheer!
(This article is the eighth in a series of “the Brand New Mindset for Cancer” essays. It is published on 9/9/2011.)
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