Long considered the most effective cancer-fighting treatment, chemotherapy may actually make cancer worse, according to a shocking new study. The extremely aggressive therapy, which kills both cancerous and healthy cells indiscriminately, can cause healthy cells to secrete a protein that sustains tumor growth and resistance to further treatment.
Researchers in the United States made the "completely unexpected" finding while seeking to explain why cancer cells are so resilient inside the human body when they are easy to kill in the lab.
They tested the effects of a type of chemotherapy on tissue collected from men with prostate cancer, and found "evidence of DNA damage" in healthy cells after treatment, the scientists wrote in Nature Medicine.
Chemotherapy works by inhibiting reproduction of fast-dividing cells such as those found in tumors. The scientists found that healthy cells damaged by chemotherapy secreted more of a protein called WNT16B which boosts cancer cell survival.
"The increase in WNT16B was completely unexpected," study co-author Peter Nelson of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle told AFP.
The Supreme Court sided with a Christian counselor on Tuesday in her free speech challenge to...
A new COVID-19 variant, BA.3.2, has been detected in 25 states, according to a recent report...
The abortion rate is holding steady in the US despite total and partial bans in some...
A New Mexico jury determined Tuesday that Meta knowingly harmed children's mental health and concealed what...
