Clin Transl Oncol (2009) 11:67-69 DOI 10.1007/s12094-009-0315-0
NEWS AND VIEWS
The Journalist Corner
We keep on working Enrique García Jordá
“Science is the soul of the prosperity of nations and the living source of all progress” Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) FRENCH CHEMIST, WHOSE FINDINGS WERE VERY SIGNIFICANT FOR DIVERSE FIELDS OF SCIENCE, ABOVE ALL IN CHEMISTRY AND MICROBIOLOGY
It is a conclusive and known fact. According to a report issued by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an organisation that is part of the WHO, this condition will surpass heart disease as the world’s leading killer in 2010, and will represent an even greater economic burden for poor countries due to the increase of tobacco abuse and other risk factors. The report affirms that “the global load of cancer doubled over the last 30 years of the past century, and it also estimates that it will double again between 2000 and 2020 to triple in 2030”. The message also adds that by then 26.4 million people will be diagnosed with cancer and 17 million more will die as a result of this disease. Some 12.4 million people will be diagnosed with some form of cancer around the world this year and 7.6 million will die from this condition. We have barely entered a new year and it seems that, in general, everything remains the same, however this is not true. Some years back, I attended, as a journalist, a European Microbiology conference held in Paris. I was accompanied by a professional colleague who worked for a European news agency; she was anxious to find a headline that could summarise the spirit of the conference. I joined her in her search for this headline and we began attending press conferences, symposiums, lectures and meetings, but she failed to come across the suitable headline. To tell the truth, there was not much of importance at the conference because it simply presented the latest scientific progress made at that time, which, beyond any doubt, was very significant for those scientists attending, but not for my fellow traveller. She was in search of a big headline featuring a discovery, or
any significant scientific figure that could become great news, but much as we tried, it was to no avail. Then, having given up hope, we decided to sit in a coffee bar at the conference facilities to have a rest and regain our strength. Curiously, beside us, and drinking a cup of coffee, was the president of a European microbiology agency, who, having heard my colleague’s disappointment, joined our conversation and added, “You have got the best possible headline. What about ‘We keep on working’?”. He was right. I would like to describe, as an example, some data on research in oncology from 2008. As usual, not all the data are mentioned here, for it would be impossible to include them all, but some of them are presented and in my opinion their significance is remarkable. Regarding breast cancer, in January 2008 the research team of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Center of New York, headed by Joan Massagué, discovered that some micro ARNs prevent the spread of breast cancer to lungs and bones. This work was published by the magazine Nature and it represented a step forward in the identification of the genetic basis of metastasis in breast cancer. Likewise, in the middle of the year, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation identified two genes associated with breast cancer metastasis in thyroids and kidneys. The authors of this work affirmed that this finding could be helpful for improving both early detection of tumours and survival of patients. Also, at the end of last year, a significant breast cancer regulator was discovered at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (USA). The study was published in the magazine Cell and it dealt with the resistance to the development of breast cancer thanks to the normal functioning of a protein called Scribble, which, curiously enough, regulates the shape of cells in a worm called Caenorhabditis elegans, and those of Drosophila melanogaster, which is better known as the fruit fly. When this protein stops functioning, tissues lose their shape and cancer results.
Colon cancer National Association of Health Reporters [Asociación Nacional de Informadores de la Salud (ANIS)]
As for colon cancer, researchers of the Spanish Grupo de Epigenética, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológi-
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cas (Epigenetic Group at the National Center for Oncology Research), headed by Dr. Manel Esteller, determined the epigenome map early last year. Epigenetics allows the opportunity to reprogramme the genetic material without modifying it. As Dr. Esteller expressed, “the epigenome is like the software controlling our genome, and this last would be our hardware”. The study, published by Cancer Research, demonstrates that the methyloma of a healthy gut cell is basically distinct from a colon cancer cell derived from this same gut.
Prostate cancer In February 2008, Nature Genetics published three studies conducted, respectively, by the Institute of Cancer Research of Sutton (UK), the National Institutes of Health of US (NIH) and the firm DeCode Genetics (Finland); these studies identified at least 10 genetic variants associated with an increase in prostate cancer susceptibility. Also, in the summer of 2008, a study conducted in the Preventive Medicine Research Institute of Sausalito in US, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrated that male patients with low-risk prostate cancer who had improved their fitness, controlled stress and made healthy changes to their diet were able modify the expression of genes responsible for prostate cancer evolution.
Lung cancer Regarding lung cancer, the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) published a finding made by researchers of the University of California, Davis in USA. It states that hydrogen peroxide and other similar oxidants turn healthy cells from smokers’ lungs into tumour cells. Concerning the same issue, American researchers published a work in the British Journal of Cancer on the findings made on the functioning of a protein called FANCD2; they say this protein is responsible for the process of repairing damage produced by cancer in the DNA, so it could explain how tobacco triggers lung cancer. Similarly, an article published in The New England Journal of Medicine by the University of Chicago in April 2008 mentions a group of researchers who identified a new gene involved in asthma while they were conducting a survey in an isolated agricultural community in US. They pointed out that this gene could be used to diagnose this condition and, maybe, treat it. The research of this survey pointed to a gene called CHI3L1, which affects the levels of a specific compound involved in asthma susceptibility, bronchial occlusion and lung impairment. Also, at the end of that year, a work conducted by scientists of the Washington University School of Medicine of Saint Louis (USA) found out that a small region of chromosome 15 contains genetic variants that are strongly associated with a history of lung cancer in the family. As is stated in the Journal of
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the National Cancer Institute, they observed that patients with a history of this tumour in the family were carriers of these variants and had a 5-fold increased risk of developing the disease regardless of whether or not they were smokers.
Pancreas cancer A researcher at the University of Rochester in USA demonstrated that resveratrol, a natural antioxidant present in grapes and by-products, such as wine, must, etc. and also in other foods, such as oysters, peanuts and nuts, can be helpful in destroying pancreatic tumour cells by gaining access to the mitochondria in cells and blocking its activity as an energy supplier. The research work was published in Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology and it demonstrated that apoptosis is produced through a combination therapy when pancreatic tumour cells are pre-treated with resveratrol and then exposed to radiation. At the same time, a study conducted on mice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison described that low doses of resveratrol could delay changes associated with ageing, as well as provide protection to mice.
Liver cancer Around the middle of last year, scientists at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, directed by Dr. Jordi Bruix and Dr. Josep M. Llover, described in a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine that sorafenib, an antitumour agent belonging to the group of tyrosine-kinase inhibitors, increases the survival of patients with advanced hepatocarcinoma by 3 months; this fact reaffirms the role of this drug as a first strategic therapy, and represents a positive step forward for life expectancy of patients.
Stomach cancer Last October, the magazine Cancer Prevention Research presented a review on a series of studies conducted by the National Cancer Institute and the University of Tehran. These studies discussed protection measures against the development of adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus caused by the action of a bacterium, Helicobacter pylori, dwelling in the stomach, which, paradoxically, elevates the risk of gastric cancer and gastro-duodenal ulcers.
Cancer genomics And as for the exciting world of genomics, at the end of last year researchers of the Washington University in Saint Louis sequenced individually for the first time the complete genome of a cancer type. They specifically decoded the genetic information of an acute myeloid leukaemia of a
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50-year-old female patient. The work was published by the magazine Nature and, as Dr. Richard K. Wilson, director of the Washington University’s Genome Sequencing Center, affirmed, “Thanks to the identification of mutated genes, which probably participate in the onset of acute myeloid leukaemia, it would be possible to implement this same technique for other types of cancer and thus help design specific therapies”. Also at the end of last year, a piece of news reported that Spain, a founding member of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC), will participate in a project of this institution by presenting a research work on the genomic sequence of adult lymphocytic leukaemia. The objective of the research work is to help identify, in the next five years, genomic alterations found in the 50 commonest types of cancer. The project is headed by Dr. Elías Campo, Hospital Clínic of Barcelona. The goal of the ICGC is to create a complete catalogue that includes all the genome alterations found in the 50 different types of high impact tumours and thus identify the causative factors or the molecular alterations that are specifically associated with those cancers. Spain, as well as France, the United Kingdom, India, Japan, Canada, the United States of America and Austria are the first 8 countries that formed this consortium.
Other lines of research Scientists of the University of California in Los Angeles were able to reprogramme human skin cells so they can
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possess the unlimited properties of stem cells without the use of embryos or an ovum. In an article published in the magazine JAMA, researchers of the University Johns Hopkins affirmed that the changes produced over the years in our genome could explain why ageing increases susceptibility to developing diseases, and also suggested that genome’s global health is hereditary, and epigenetic changes seem to increase susceptibility to diseases as a result of the ageing process. As for ageing, researchers of the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO) (National Center of Cancer Research) were able to establish the relationship between cancer and ageing. This has opened the door to treatments that can simultaneously fight the onset of tumours and delay ageing. Genetic manipulation increased longevity of mice by 50% and made them more resistant to cancer. It is certain that when this article sees the light most of the aforementioned research works will have substantially changed, for they will have evolved into later phases and will be unfolding into different stages and directions. I am absolutely convinced of the great advances achieved over the past few years in general research and in oncology in particular. The fight against cancer is both relentless and unstoppable and right now scientists are working on, searching for and developing techniques in many labs around the world in an effort to find solutions and methods to eradicate, as much as possible, this two-hundred-headed hydra representing cancer.
