THE MOSS REPORTS Newsletter (03/06/05)

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THE MOSS REPORTS Newsletter (03/06/05)

 

 

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Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D. Weekly CancerDecisions.com

Newsletter #174 03/06/05

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THE MOSS REPORTS

 

 

What is cancer? Is it one disease, or many? It may surprise you to know

that scientists are far from clear on these most fundamental questions.

 

Last week I reported on a 2004 experiment at the University of

Massachusetts Medical School (UMSS), showing that some stomach cancers

are

caused by microbes and actually originate in bone marrow derived stem

cells

(BMDCs). I conclude the article this week.

 

The model of cancer causation that emerges from this work could change

our understanding of cancer on a fundamental level and has wide-ranging

implications for the future of cancer research as a whole.

 

For thirty years I have been monitoring the field of cancer research

and treatment, chronicling the advances and setbacks, the small triumphs

and the many frustrations of the war on cancer.

 

The fruit of my long involvement in this field is The Moss Reports, a

comprehensive library of more than two hundred individual reports on

specific cancer diagnoses. For cancer patients, a Moss Report represents

an invaluable guide and handbook for the journey ahead.

 

If you would like to order a Moss Report for yourself or someone you

love, you can do so from our website, www.cancerdecisions.com, or by

calling Diane at 1-800-980-1234 (814-238-3367 from outside the US).

 

We look forward to helping you.

 

 

A NEW VIEW OF CANCER'S ORIGINS – PART II

 

 

Unitarian Theory?

 

 

Conventional thinking states that cancer is a group of 200 or so

different diseases, each of which has its own distinctive features and

causes. In this widely accepted model, lung cancer arises from normal

bodily

(or somatic) cells of the lung, those of the liver from normal liver,

and so forth.

 

In this UMMS experiment, however, Dr. Houghton and her colleagues

clearly demonstrated that the cancer developing in the stomachs of the

experimental animals - despite every appearance to the contrary - is not

really stomach cancer at all. It is caused by the transformation of bone

marrow-derived stem cells, which come rushing to the scene in order to

help, but are then themselves overwhelmed.

 

Why then do they look so much like malignant stomach cancer cells that

they could fool almost any pathologist who looked at them under the

microscope? Probably because these cells develop within the distinctive

hormonal " microenvironment " of the organ.

 

To repeat, these " stomach cancer " cells are masquerading, making

themselves appear to be gastric in origin. But their true nature has

now been

unmasked: they are in reality stem cells that have been transformed

under the influence of local infection and inflammation.

 

It may also turn out that other kinds of carcinoma come about in the

same way. In fact, it is possible that this will develop into a model for

cancer in general, and that in the future we will no longer be able to

talk meaningfully about " stomach, " " liver, " " breast, " or other kinds of

carcinoma, but all cancers will be found to have a common origin.

 

Is cancer then many diseases or one disease with many manifestations?

This is one of the oldest debates in oncology. There have been advocates

of the single origin (or 'unitarian') theory of cancer, even in

conventional medicine. My old boss at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Lewis

Thomas,

MD, believed that cancer would eventually be proven to be a single

disease. But for a long time, it has been the CAM movement that has

provided a refuge for such single-etiology theories.

 

The classic example of a single, or unitarian, worldview is the

trophoblastic theory of cancer. This was essentially propounded in

1902 by the

Scottish embryologist John Beard, DSc, and then revived more than half

a century ago by Ernst T. Krebs, Jr., and two colleagues. They proposed

that all cancer was identical in nature, and that its origin was in

generally distributed primordial 'diploid totipotent cells,' which are

similar to what are now called stem cells.

 

Here is what Krebs wrote at mid-century:

 

" It is veritably impossible to find, among the hundreds of valid

experimental contributions to our knowledge of cancer made during the

past

half century, an experimentally established datum that would controvert

the thesis of the basic biological uniformity characterizing all

exhibitions of cancer. " (Krebs 1950)

 

This seemed overblown at the time, but more recent work on stem cells

at the University of Michigan has shown that it is indeed stem cells,

not ordinary somatic cells, that cause breast cancer in another

experimental system. Only a tiny minority of cells in these human tumors

(growing in immune-deficient mice) are capable of inducing new

cancers; the

rest are relatively harmless.

 

" These tumor-inducing cells have many of the properties of stem cells, "

said Michael F. Clarke, MD, the Michigan professor of internal medicine

who directed a 2003 study. " They make copies of themselves - a process

called self-renewal – and produce all the other kinds of cells in the

original tumor. " These really malignant cells have a unique

configuration of surface markers: all express a protein marker called

CD44, in

addition to having either very low levels, or no levels, of another

marker

called CD24.

 

It will certainly be interesting to see if there is a relationship

between Dr. Houghton's BMDCs and Dr. Clarke's malignant stem cells. One

tell-tale sign would be the presence of these CD44+/CD24- cells. Another

would be the expression of chorionic gonadotropin, the characteristic

hormone of pregnancy.

 

These are truly exciting times for cancer research. Investigations of

stem cells in many laboratories is homing in on their connection to the

origin of cancer. If such modern discoveries could be combined with the

rich history and practical experience of the CAM movement, this could

lead to a scientifically valid theory of cancer.

 

Could a cure for cancer be far behind?

 

 

 

--Ralph W. Moss, PhD

 

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References:

 

Anderson DJ, Gage FH, Weissman IL. Can stem cells cross lineage

boundaries? Nat Med. 2001;7:393-5.

 

Balkwill F, Mantovani A. Inflammation and cancer: back to Virchow?

Lancet. 2001;357:539-45.

 

Couzin J. Medicine. Tracing the steps of metastasis, cancer's menacing

ballet. Science. 2003;299:1002-6.

 

Houghton J, Stoicov C, Nomura S, et al. Gastric cancer originating from

bone marrow-derived cells. Science. 2004;306:1568-71.

 

Krebs, ET, Jr., Krebs ET, Beard HH. The unitarian or trophoblastic

thesis of cancer. Medical Record 1950;163:149-174.

 

Normile D. Cell proliferation. Common control for cancer, stem cells.

Science. 2002;298:1869.

 

UMMS Public Affairs. Bone marrow-derived stem cells linked to gastric

cancers. New thinking on the source of gastric cancer. Nov, 25, 2004.

Accessed Feb. 16, 2005. Available at:

http://www.umassmed.edu/pap/news/2004/11_25_04.cfm.

 

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The news and other items in this newsletter are intended for

informational purposes only. Nothing in this newsletter is intended to

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