What if cancer therapy causes more cancer?
Last Updated Aug 2007
That's a pretty frightening thought, but it turns out it is often the case. In the
May issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, a study indicated that standard
drugs and radiation used to treat primary breast tumors caused an increase in a
Tissue Growth Factor-beta (TGF-beta) in the blood. This growth factor in test
animals caused the primary breast tumor to spread to the lung. If TGF-beta was
blocked by antibodies given at the same time as the cancer treatment, then there
was no metastasis to the lung. As the authors wrote, "The repopulation and
progression of tumors after anti-cancer therapy is a well-recognized phenomenon.
It has been shown to occur following radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgery." So
much for looking for a cancer "cure." On the other hand, if you had some way to
reduce TGF-beta, then you would be able to use standard cancer treatments with far
greater success. It turns out that such a "drug" already exists -- it's high-dose
fish oil. Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids have been shown in animal models to
significantly reduce growth factors, such as TGF-beta. It's not that high-dose
fish oil will replace drugs, but it can make them work better at lower doses. With
any type of cancer treatment, that would be a major breakthrough.