Some experts believe high-dose chemotherapy may actually worsen cancer by exerting a natural selection pressure that helps drug-resistant tumour cells to become more abundant which means if cancer returns it will be fatal. This is becoming more and more the prevalent thought amongst reseachers.
The new strategy is designed to prevent drug-resistant tumour cells getting a handle.
Rather than trying to eradicate a tumour, the treatment stabilizes it by deliberately allowing a small population of drug-sensitive tumour cells to survive.
A team of US scientists led by Dr Robert Gatenby, from the H Lee Moffitt Cancer Centre and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida, conducted tests using the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel to treat mice with two different kinds of breast cancer.
Standard chemotherapy initially shrank the mouse tumours, but as soon as the treatment stopped they grew back. However giving an initial high dose followed be regular lower doses controlled cancer growth.
In fact the treatment was so effective that the majority of the mice were weaned off the drug completely over an extended period of time without suffering relapses.
Writing in the journal Science Translational Medicine, Dr Gatenby said: "Our results suggest that this adaptive therapeutic strategy can be adapted to clinical imaging and can result in prolonged progression-free survival in breast cancer.
"Finally, we note that the evolutionary principles that govern AT may be applicable to a wide range of breast cancer treatments including hormonal manipulation and immunotherapy, although they will need to undergo further testing in those settings."
Rachel Rawson, senior clinical nurse specialist from the charity Breast Cancer Care, said the proposed treatment was ‘an exciting avenue to explore.'"The potential to reduce the disabling side-effects of chemotherapy, while increasing the treatment's effectiveness, could dramatically improve the lives of people with breast cancer. This is an exciting avenue to explore,” she added.
"However there remains a long road from this study on mice to any potential changes in clinical practice. And we want to reassure anyone concerned, the treatment currently out there has been successfully demonstrated in trials of thousands of patients."
If you or someone you know is being treated currently , supportive nutritional and immune boosting nutrition is a known way of also mitigating side effects. Please visit our Natural Pharmacy or contact me for suggestions.
P.S. I was notified this a.m. that we have been selected as Acupuncture Clinic of the year for Arlington Heights for the 4th consecutive year!
