The team at the Francis Crick Institute in London showed that rather than causing damage, air pollution was waking up old damaged cells.
The classical view of cancer starts with a healthy cell. It acquires more and more mutations in its genetic code, or DNA, until it reaches a tipping point. Then it becomes a cancer and grows uncontrollably.
But there are problems with this idea: cancerous mutations are found in seemingly healthy tissue, and many substances known to cause cancer - including air pollution - donāt seem to damage peopleās DNA.
The researchers have produced evidence of a different idea. The damage is already there in our cellās DNA, picked up as we grow and age, but something needs to pull the trigger that actually makes it cancerous.
The discovery came from exploring why non-smokers get lung cancer. The overwhelming majority of lung cancers are caused by smoking but still, one in 10 cases in the UK is down to air pollution.
That is interesting but they have been trying to find what causes cancer for many years.
I have always wondered whether stress may cause some illnesses & I am sure it contributed to my diabetes!
I would like to know how stress affects our body functions and if it can contribute to poor health!
Iām sure stress and trauma all build up in our bodies and cause illness, Twink. I do wonder if this is what they mean by the air pollution inflaming āalready damaged cellsā?
There was also early research that Covid triggered cancers in dormant cells. We already know that certain viruses can do this. Not surprising that pathogens in the air can do the same, particularly in those who have asthma/COPD who are more likely to suffer inflammation.
Recurrent cancer that spreads to distant sites is the leading cause of disease-related death among cancer patients. Cancer cells are likely to disseminate during cancer progression, and some may enter dormancy, remaining viable but not increasing. These dormant cancer cells (DCCs) are rarely detectable with current diagnostic systems. Moreover, they can interpret homoeostatic signals from the microenvironment, thereby evading immune surveillance and chemotherapy. Eventually, DCCs can reawaken in response to signals, which are not yet fully understood, resulting in recurrence and metastasis. Therefore, understanding the biology of DCC reawakening is key to preventing metastasis. Over the last decade, a growing body of literature has revealed the mechanisms involved in cancer dormancy and reawakening. The cytotoxic activity of immune cells can cause cancer cells to enter a dormant state, and chronic inflammation can reactivate cancer proliferation at distant sites. Upon the binding of circulating DCCs to extracellular molecules, various signaling cascades are activated and reinitiate cell proliferation. In the present review, we attempt to consolidate the existing literature to provide a framework for the understanding of this crucial step in cancer progression.
I didnāt know that Annie! Thanksā¦I have glanced over it and will read it slowly later on. Thereās an awful ot of Terminology in there that I donāt know, so Iāll need to spend time looking it up!
Air Pollution is something I know about, however it is a constantly evolving subject.
Cancer, oncology and related issues are certainly not my area of expertise.
I will offer no opinion on this, other than to say that there are far clever people than me working in this field and what they say is well listened to.
They seem to be currently working on developing a therapy which will inhibit the Stat3 protein which causes inflammation. Seems to have some promising results.
You canāt argue with the fact that some cancers seemed to have grown with the popularity of the motor vehicle. People have smoked for hundreds of years but cancer only seems to have grown to epidemic proportions in the last 70 years despite medical science improving.
Iām not suggesting that inhaling smoke by any means is healthy, and has most likely contributed to the problem, but not as much as we are led to believe.
The research kind of puts the boot into the idea that we should catch infections and wait for our immune system to do itās thing. Given the immune system could go into overdrive with inflammation as it sometimes doesnāt know where to stop.
Yes Annie, but why does the immune system malfunction?
It has also being proved in the past that by being exposed to viruses and bacteria makes the immune system strongerā¦Isnāt that how vaccines work? Or used to.
You said that the immune system could go into āOverdriveā and āIt doesnāt know when to stopāā¦ Would that not be classed as āMalfunctionā?
Thatās normal when faced with an invader. The immune system is not perfect and natural healing is not always pretty.
The main malfunction from my own experience is auto immune. My main experience of that is anaphylaxis where the immune system goes into overdrive but there is no dangerous invader.
There are many incurable diseases of the lung caused by pollution other than cancer .
However this medical breakthrough is most welcome .
To watch someone slowly fade away unable to breathe is unbearable.
