Stress response 'may shield cancer cells from treatment'

Cancer cells can be shielded against the effects of chemotherapy by the body's own stress defences, a study has shown.

The findings add to growing evidence that inflammation, part of the immune response, is linked to cancer. Scientists studied mice with lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph system, that were treated with a chemotherapy drug.

They discovered some tumour cells found refuge in the lymphoma, an organ where immune cells mature. There they were shielded from the drug by an "anti-stress" immune system molecule generated by healthy cells.

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The signalling molecule, interleukin-6 (IL-6), allowed the cancer cells to persist in the thymus.

Further experiments showed that human liver cancer cells exposed to the chemotherapy agent doxorubicin also produced IL-6. When chemotherapy was combined with a treatment that blocked IL-6, the cancer cells were more likely to die.

IL-6 is already linked to harmful inflammation and autoimmune conditions. Anti-IL-6 therapies are now in development for treating patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Researcher Dr Michael Hemann, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, US, said the findings made sense from the point of view of organ survival in the face of stress.

To maintain itself, an organ had to respond to stressful conditions. "In this case, the stress response is to chemo. The chemotherapy kills tumour cells while it elicits stress responses that protect a subset of tumour cells in select locations from drug action."

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The findings were reported in the journal Cell. Dr Hemann's team wrote: "While significant progress has been made in the application of chemotherapy in the past 40 years, most chemotherapeutic regimens ultimately fail to cure patients.

"Even tumours that show dramatic initial responses to therapy frequently relapse as chemoresistant malignancies."

Dr Hemann said most approaches to tackling cancer involved "single agents".

"Our data suggest that a combination of DNA-damaging chemotherapy or radiation plus treatments designed to block pro-survival pathways would be the most potent therapy," he added.

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Many British men whose fertility may be at risk from cancer treatment are not being offered the chance to bank their sperm, a study suggests.

The survey of almost 500 clinicians across Britain found more than a fifth (21 per cent) were unaware of local policies on storing sperm.

Only a quarter of oncologists and 38 per cent of haematologists said discussions with male cancer patients about sperm banking were systematically documented.

National guidelines state that they should be offering sperm banking to eligible patients, not merely making information available.

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