DON'T EAT ME!

Linda and Carolyn in Split Mountain

When I first got into this business of studying, writing about, and puzzling over cancer I had some naïve ideas (and still do, I’m sure).  For one thing, I was satisfied with the notion that our immune system gives cancer a pass, because it is “self”.  I had no idea how that occurred; that is, how a cell goes about signaling “I’m harmless!  Don’t eat me!

  

Well, it turns out that – cancer cells, at least – turn this trick by displaying all sorts of molecules on their exterior.  Our innate immune system has these big, ugly bug-eaters, called macrophages, circulating around looking for something “foreign” to engulf and eat.  However, cancer cells (this study involves ovarian cancer and triple-negative breast cancer) display on their surfaces proteins (CD24, CD47) that holler out “don’t eat me!”.  Some smart people at Stanford have hit on a method to make these proteins ineffective.  Good for them!

As you might have guessed, this is another wrinkle in the burgeoning field of immunotherapy.

Read the article.. It’s long, but easy going and interesting.

https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2019/cd24-immunotherapy-target?cid=eb_govdel

LINDA'S 74th

Linda at three

Tomorrow, August 30th, would have been Linda’s 74^th birthday.  It seems as though I miss her more with each passing year.  Oh, the quilts she would have made and the friends she would have nurtured!  Never fail to do whatever you can to eradicate ovarian cancer.

http://engage.fredhutch.org/site/TR/PersonalFundraisingPages/General?px=1148821&pg=personal&fr_id=1573

CANCER DEATH BY MAGNETISM

Linda with unknown baby

If you take a piece of iron and stick it in an alternating electrical field it will get hot; If you had paid attention in high school physics class you would know why.  It turns out that you can kill cancer cells by injecting them with magnetizable clusters of nanoparticles – and then turning on the a.c. (alternating current, not air conditioning!).  Once the cancer cells reach a temperature of 100⁰ F, they croak.  That’s pretty cool, in more ways than one – heck, your normal body temperature is already 98.6⁰F.  (I am beginning to mis-understand this article already.  Maybe 100⁰C?).

Well, anyway, most cancers can’t just have little magnets directly injected into them.  What is needed is a “systemic” approach – put them into the body, then somehow direct them to the cancer.  Apparently some smart people at Oregon State are on the verge of doing this, although how they do it (in mice, for now, of course) is not explained.  So I don’t really know why I wrote this blog.  Maybe the notion of tiny hexagons of magnetic stuff being useful caught my old paleomagnetic imagination.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-06/osu-rrm062619.php

TELL-TALE BUGS

Linda in Aberdeen

There seems to be a good bit of excitement about this recent British discovery: there is a correlation between ovarian cancer and a certain kind of vaginal bacteria.  Whether there is a causative relationship is under investigation.  At the least, it appears that a simple swab and a squint down a microscope may someday offer a test for probability of contracting ovarian cancer.  Here, read it yourself:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(19)30340-7/fulltext

And, if you flame out on this one (I did), try this:

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-48919985 

CAUTION!

Linda, thoroughly be-catted

Commercial DNA testing services are great fun.  Rub a cotton swab around in your mouth, send it off – and before long you find that you are related to Winston Churchill.  Or, maybe, Donald Trump.  At the very least you may discover that your ancestors were reindeer herders in northern Finmark.  All amusing, and totally harmless. 

Unfortunately, the data provided by these commercial DNA- sequencing outfits also may be utilized for health purposes, which turns out to be a bad idea, according to the British Docs cited below.  The reliability just isn’t there, in many cases.  The moral here is simple; don’t do anything radical and/or irreversible until you talk to a genetics counselor and/or your primary care physician.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jul/21/senior-doctors-call-for-crackdown-on-home-genetic-testing-kits

CANCER DRUGS: WHAT THEY ARE AND WHAT THEY DO

Dinner

In England, I think

More useful, concisely reported information from NCI is at hand.  In reading articles to pass on to you I have continually been astonished at how many cancer-related drugs are out there, waiting to be called into the fight.  Well, I had no idea!  This offering from NCI gives you an easy way to check up on dozens – hell, hundreds – of chemical concoctions sitting on the shelf, all ready to smite almost any kind of cancer.  It is a wonder cancer still exists, but it does.  Anyway, if you are curious about drugs, here is the go-to web site.

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/drugs?cid=eb_govdel

MORE THAN ONE WAY TO KILL A CANCER CELL

Linda at seven

There can’t be too many ways to kill cancer cells.

 You are familiar with the term “apoptosis”, which is short for “programed cell death”.  Apoptosis is applied to old, sick, or damaged cells; sort of the cellular equivalent of “put grandpaw on an ice flow and shove him out to sea”.  It has never been clear to me what determines which cells get “apoped”.  It’s almost like they make the decision themselves; grumble to themselves “I’m useless.  Time to go”. So, as to cancer therapy, the game would seem to be to convince cancerous cells that they are useless.  Or, of course, just kill them outright.

Well, there seems to be another way for cells to die:  “necroptosis”.  In necroptosis the cell doesn’t die a quiet, peaceful death; rather, somehow, it is blown to smithereens.  Viruses are involved.  Many mice have benefited by being necropted.  Research is underway to understand necroptosis and weaponized it in the battle against cancer.

To tell the honest truth, I don’t completely understand this article.  Maybe you will.

https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2019/necroptosis-cell-death-ripk3-immune-response?cid=eb_govdel

BREAST FEEDING

Well, better late than not at all.  Right now we are approaching the end of World Breast Feeding Week!  In addition to being good for babies, breast feeding has been shown to be a protection against ovarian and breast cancer.  So do it!  Assuming you can.

This blog honors my granddaughter Amanda, who is something of a breast feeding guru – and is about to practice her art once again!

https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2019/08/01/default-calendar/world-breastfeeding-week-2019

TIRED T CELLS

Wedding picture

This article reminded me of just how complicated a biological system can be if it is the result of natural selection operating on blind chance. 

So, you know all about T cells, right.  You also know that they can be modified; largely using CRISPR technology, to acknowledge cancer cells as “enemy”, and throttle them.  Yeah, but did you know that these same T cells can become “exhausted”, and just hang around doing nothing?  Neither did I.  Moreover, I can’t imagine how and why such a trait ever evolved.  But it did, and perhaps someday we will find out why - and make medical use of the knowledge.  But don’t hold your breath.

Well, anyway, new research shows that some tumors are chock full of these exhausted T cells which, rather than doing their cytotoxic job, are just loafing around.  It transpires that certain transcription factors are involved.  Transcription factors, as I’ll bet you already know, are proteins involved in determining which genes are “transcribed” into proteins – are “expressed”, in bio-speak.  Anyway, exhausted T cells are chock full of transcription factors designed, it appears, to make them tired.  Why evolution should have coughed up such an obviously stupid arrangement certainly is a mystery to me; perhaps the people in white coats will figure it out – and turn their knowledge into effective weapons against cancer.  Let’s hope so.

https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2019/t-cell-exhaustion-immunotherapy?cid=eb_govdel

FOR CANCER PATIENTS

Linda& Murphy

Our first anniversary

Here is a sort of "chatgroup" for cancer patients.  Hope you never need it.

https://www.inspire.com/