Comments on: Stem cells, cancer progression and metastasis (part III) – premetastatic niche

By: Lei

Lei — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:14:21 +0000

Given the fact that our body produces 1M mutated cells everyday, the “preparation of the bed” theory is scary.
Then we come up with the delimma proposed by m@w, active pharmacological intervention leads to the disruption of “natural” selection; on the other hand, leaving sick patients behind is obviously immoral.
Anyways, like Alex said, we can just play with “cancer”, “stem cell”, “individualized therapeutic” concepts and get grant money.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:52:54 +0000

to Lei -
“why stromal cells prepare the bed?”
they don’t really care where to go because of chemotaxis, any place in our body where there is a signals noise (such as SDF-1, HIF, fibronectin ect.) they will go and do their job. It’s could be good if it’s damaged organ reparation (we can call them smart) or could be bed if it’s cancer makes them to do so (we can call them stupid).
That’s why stem cells injections with a purpose of repair damaged organ is always risky if we have a tumor hiding somewhere in the body.

By: m@w

m@w — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:25:59 +0000

2JWS:
good point about the Darwinism…but the opposite case is also possible according to the theory of artificial selection…since our professional activities allow patients with highly malignant tumors and leukemias survive and leave progeny, there is a “breeding” of predisposed population

By: JWS

JWS — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:28:22 +0000

It actually makes sense because cancer cells may actually evolve to win over normal physiology – that’s why we need treatment to counter against it. If Darwinism is correct, we will eventually acquire ability to counter cancer cells over time, but not immediately – maybe treatment that human beings come up with from their imagination and creativity will allow ourselves to evolve….

By: Lei

Lei — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:00:39 +0000

The question is “why” bone marrow stromal cells help to prepare a nursery for cancer cell. If cancer cells are more evoluted and can make everybody work for their benefic and the result is the death of the host, what is Darwinism all about?