Unfortunately, cancer patients cannot always claim the victory of a cure so soon depending on the complexity of the disease, considering that it takes a long period of remission to have better confidence that the tumors will not return. After all, even after treatment, tumor cells from breast cancer, for example, may have spread to other organs, such as the lung, in secondary tumors or metastasis.
And it is precisely to defuse this possible time bomb that scientists from the Cancer Research Institute (ICR) carried out an analysis of breast cancer positive for estrogen receptor (ER+), which, with the help of imatinib medicineended up affecting less the lung of the specimens tested.
“Cancer cells can survive in organs distant from the original tumor for decades, hiding in an inactive state”, says Frances Turrell, researcher at ICR, in a note. According to him, factors such as aging cause cancerous cells to be activated and transform into possible tumors, in addition to being a risk associated with lesions or scarring in the lung tissue.
The study published in Nature Cancer details that the lung protein PDGF-C is one of those responsible for activating dormant breast cancer cells, since its concentration can cause injuries. Imatinib, in this case, was used as a blocker in mice with ER+ tumors and, after treatments, cancer growth was greatly reduced.
The medicine is now used in cases of chronic myelogenous leukemia, and now the idea is to research for more cases the medicine can help.