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Chemokines for Cancer Therapy

When researching effective ways to combat cancer, it is important to consider the exact mechanisms by which cancer spreads in order to potentially halt its growth at the source. As cancer utilizes the body's network of chemokines in metastasis, treatments that could be tailored to avoid this threat could block cancer from reaching throughout the body.

  1. Cancer

    • Cancer is the general term for any abnormal growth of malignant cells found within the body. While the immune system is normally quite efficient at regulating and destroying abnormal cells before they begin to spread, occasionally one slips through, leading to the development of cancer. Symptoms include weight loss, fatigue, malaise, night sweats and fever.

    Metastasis

    • Cancer development is divided into a number of phases depending on how far it has traveled throughout the body. Cancer is most difficult to treat when it has metastasized, or spread through the lymph node system to other organs and tissue. Any treatment which could halt the process of metastasis could be of value to improving the life expectancy of cancer patients.

    Chemokines

    • According to the site ChemoCentryx, chemokines are chemical messengers that direct and coordinate the movements of the immune system throughout the body. There are over 50 types (ligands) of chemokines in the body, with over 12 different types of receptors sites to which these compounds can adhere to pass along their chemical message.

    Chemokines and Cancer

    • According to research performed by Roeliene C. Kruizinga, et. al. at the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, published in the October 2009 issue of Current Pharmaceutical Design, cancer cells use chemokine networks during the process of metastasis, allowing the cancer to spread throughout the body. Treatments which can target chemokines and prevent this spread could potentially halt metastasis entirely.

    Considerations

    • Unfortunately, this is all hypothesis and conjecture at this point, as there are no concrete projects currently utilizing chemokines to treat cancer. However, the link between chemokines and metastasis has been clearly established, so it is only a matter of time before science provides the answer to this piece of the cancer-fighting puzzle.

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