brain tumors – Cancer In Plain English – Cancer Information https://www.cancerinplainenglish.com Cancer Information Sat, 04 Apr 2015 14:55:20 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.28 Brain Tumors – new exciting developments https://www.cancerinplainenglish.com/brain-tumors-new-exciting-developments/ https://www.cancerinplainenglish.com/brain-tumors-new-exciting-developments/#respond Sat, 27 Sep 2014 13:17:55 +0000 http://www.cancerinplainenglish.com/?p=557 Warsaw, Poland
We here at www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com keep an eye out for new and exciting research and report it here when we find it. This is what has just happened with these recent findings with regard to Malignant Gliomas which is a type of brain tumor.
A team of researchers at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw has come up with potentially ground-breaking new findings with regards to a kind of brain tumor known as a Malignant Glioma.
We have always known that tumors develop and grow because they develop the ability to evade detection by the body’s immune system. Indeed, researchers spent the better half of the 1990s trying to find ways for molecules such as Alpha Interferon and Interleukin-2 to kill tumors. Researchers incubated the body’s immune cells with high doses of Interleukin-2 (IL-2) in an effort to generate what is known as “Lymphocyte Activated Killer Cells” – or LAK cells – and then try to see if these cells were able to kill tumors such as Renal Cell Carcinoma and Malignant Melanoma.
In these new developments, a team in Poland lead by Dr. Bozena Kaminska has discovered that brain tumors known as Malignant Gliomas, seem to evade detection by the body’s immune system by secreting a protein which they have called CSF2. They based their research on this protein on the fact that some of their earlier studies dating back to 2007 had shown that by secreting this protein, Malignant Gliomas are able to “reprogram”, if you will, the surrounding immune system near the Malignant Gliom tumors, to not destroy it.
They followed a hunch. In Breast Cancer, researchers had found that Breast Cancers changed the behavior of the immune system that surrounds them by changing the cells known as Tumor-Infiltrating-Macrophages (or Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes – TILs). Breast Cancers did this by secreting a protein which called CSF-1. Well, the team in Poland thought “what if Malignant Gliomas do the same thing?”  – well the answer is no. Malignant Gliomas do NOT secrete CSF-1 as a means to stop the body’s immunce TIL cells from invading them – but the researchers DID find that the Malignant Glioma cells DID secrete a protein which they have called CSF-2! This was their “EUREKA!” moment.
They then blocked the PRODUCTION of CSF-2 by Malignant Glioma cells by blocking the gene which MAKES it – and lo and behold – the Malignant Glioma cells WITHOUT the ability to make and secrete CSF-2 were NOT able to stop the body’s immune TIL cells from invading them and destroying them. Furthermore, it seems that tumor cells that did NOT secreting CSF-2 were found to be “converted” to less aggressive forms (i.e. less “tumor-like”) by the lack of CSF-2 secretion.
This, therefore, immediately presented itself as a possible target for the treatment of Malignant Gliomas.
Dr. Kaminska’s group then took things a logical step further. They asked themselves “What if we could create an “anti-protein” which could actively COMPETE for the binding site of CSF-2?” Well, they did just that. They developed short peptides (which are proteins) which interfere with the binding of CSF-2 to their respective binding site and – as hoped – this seems to have the same effect as removing the gene which makes CSF-2 did in earlier experiments. It stops the Malignant Gliomas and makes them more susceptible to the body’s immune system.
This thus opens up a whole new “can of beans” for possible treatments for Malignant Gliomas. Potentially, we could give patients with Malignant Gliomas these small peptides which compete for the binding site of CSF-2 and their Gliomas would stop growing, become more sensitive to the immune system and – apparently – even become less malignant! As we can expect, the pharmaceutical potential and the financially lucrative possibilities did not escape the notice of those who learned of this. Thus, the “Developed Molecules” and their “relevant genetic tools” for making these molecules are now covered by an International Patent! Surprise, surprise. Oh well. At least we can hope that despite the monetary considerations, if these researchers and others are indeed able to develop a protein which will stop Malignant Gliomas and do so with natural, less aggressive means than radiation and/or chemotherapy, it would be a wonderful step forward in a new direction for the treatment of brain tumors.
We at www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com will continue to keep an eye out for these developments and will report them here as they become available.
‘Till next we speak again,
Mark Sperry for
www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com

]]> https://www.cancerinplainenglish.com/brain-tumors-new-exciting-developments/feed/ 0 Metastatic Lung Cancer https://www.cancerinplainenglish.com/metastatic-lung-cancer/ Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:22:19 +0000 http://www.cancerinplainenglish.com/articles/?p=89 When lung cancer spreads beyond the original area or spot where the cancer started, this is what is known as metastasis. Following with this thinking then, when a lung cancer is a spread cancer, this is what is known as a metastatic lung cancer.

Metastasis (or spread) of lung cancer can occur in two different forms.
Metastasis of lung cancer can occur as a LOCAL metastasis or a DISTANT metastasis from the original area where the cancer started.

LOCAL METASTASIS: As the name implies, local metastasis are metastasis (or spread of the cancer) to areas nearby where the tumor originated. Examples of local metastasis are, for example, if the lung cancer spreads to the lymph nodes that are near where the cancer originated. Other examples of local metastasis (or local spread) is if the cancer grows right where it started and it grows into the overlying chest wall and the ribs. These are examples of local metastasis.

DISTANT METASTASIS: Distant metastasis, also as the name implies, are metastasis that occur far away from where the cancer started. Thus, if the cancer starts in a spot in the lungs and spreads to, for example, the bones or the liver or the brain, these are all examples of distant metastasis.

TREATMENT: Local metastasis typically are a better occurrence (in terms of prognosis) than distant metastasis. When the lung cancer spreads locally, sometimes it does not spread too far locally and the lung cancer is still able to be removed surgically. This is what is described in the section which describes the Stage system for lung cancer in this set of lung cancer articles on this web site. The stage of the lung cancer when it is found, tells us just how far the cancer has spread and the ability for the person to have surgery or to not have surgery as a result of that spread.
Distant metastasis are usually unable to have surgery and the treatment for lung cancer that has developed distant metastasis is usually chemotherapy or radiation therapy. As with so many things in life, there are occasional exceptions to this. If a person has distant metastasis from the lung cancer to the brain or to the liver, for example, sometimes these distant metastasis to these organs are small enough that the metastasis themselves may be able to be removed surgically.

All of these concepts and many others are discussed in calm and easy to understand language in the audio CD on Lung Cancer available on www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com.

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