patients might be prone to carry more drug-resistant cells , based on the genes that caused chemotherapy-resistant behavior in primary tumor cells .
Finally " This highly innovative research provides a novel path forward for targeting dormant cancer cells which may be ' hiding ' from our available therapies and which may need additional drugs to root them out and improve cure rates ." Said William Oh , M . D ., chief , Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology , and professor of clinical cancer therapeutics at The Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine Mount Sinai .
Cancer research will remain an active field until medicine wins the battle once more !
" DEEP IN THEIR ROOTS , FLOWERS KEEP THE LIGHT " — THEODORE ROETHKE
GIVE A FLOWER TO
CANCER
BY ABDALLAH ELHALABY
What if a flower could be holding light of the cure for cancer ? The flower we are talking about is the one behind " Paclitaxel ", a chemotherapy drug that was found able to treat ovarian , breast , lung , pancreatic cancers and even AIDS-related rare tumors .
THE BOTANICAL MIRACLE This flower ' s tree extract , known as " Taxol ", is derived from the bark ( phloem ) of the Pacific Yew tree " Taxus brevifolia ", which is a small to medium-sized evergreen yew tree that grows in the northwest region of North America overlooking the Pacific Ocean hence the name .
HOW TAXOL WORKS Taxol ( paclitaxel ) is a microtubulestabilizing agent that attacks cancer cells and destroy them by interfering with the cell cycle . The assembly of microtubules — which are cellular constituents that play a major role in shaping the new daughter cells — is critical for the progression of the cell cycle in order to produce new cells .
If we take a look at Taxol ' s action specifically during the " metaphase " stage of cell division , we find that Taxol interferes with the spindle microtubule dynamics within the cell that ensures the correct arrangement of chromosomes before they are pulled apart towards the cell ' s poles and suggested into 2 daughter cells . Similar to the strings on a puppet , microtubules need to be held at the correct tension for the chromosomes to align . Any disturbance with this process will ultimately cause cell death . On observing Taxol-treated cells , they are found to have defects in mitotic spindle structure , chromosome separation , and cell division as a whole . These defects represent a " mitotic block " in which the chromosomes can ' t achieve a metaphase spindle configuration and can ' t progress to the following cell division steps . Subsequently , when the mitosis stops , there will be a prolonged activation of the mitosis with the activation or triggering of apoptosis or returning back into the G-1 phase of the cell cycle where the nucleic material is duplicated but not yet divided .
It ' s like a gasoline engine in an automobile . Say the motor is running and for some reason , the key in the ignition is broken or jammed and you cannot shut off the engine , and you can ' t cut the ignition wires too . So the only other way around is to pour sugar into the gasoline tank until the motor gummies up and stops . However , while cutting ignition wires would save the engine for another day ( as you can just replace the wires ), by placing sugar into the gas tank you have terminally destroyed the engine . The same with cancer cells that are treated with Taxol , instead of killing cancer cells by cytotoxic agents and still have cells capable of division , Taxol ruins the " engine " of the cell by interfering with microtubules and stopping the whole process at this point and drives the cancerous cell to cell suicide or " Apoptosis ".
BEFORE TAXOL RUNS OUT Taxol succeeded as a promising chemotherapy whose unique mechanism made it a front-line agent for ovarian cancer chemotherapy . But the challenges it faces are many ; one of them is finding the appropriate doses schedule for it , also Taxol production has already been declining because its trees aren ' t so common and each tree gives a limited amount of the drug . But thankfully , scientists managed to manufacture paclitaxel by semisynthetic production from a natural precursor . Because after all , giving a flower to cancer could be one of the ways to conquer it .