Re:Why cancer cells waste so much energy
by peterdemic on Friday January 15, 2021 @10:17AM
(#25791877)
That is not entirely true... The prevalent chemotherapy is detrimental to cells all over the body and it has no way of distinguishing cancel cells vs non-cancer cells.
Targeted therapies are different and are becoming more widely used but are still small in percentage of patients compared to "classic" chemotherapy.
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Re:Why cancer cells waste so much energy
by PeterisP on Friday January 15, 2021 @11:43AM
(#25792807)
"the prevalent chemotherapy is detrimental to cells all over the body" I'm not a doctor, but isn't the case that the prevalent chemotherapy is detrimental to new/growing cells all over the body, which is a way of distinguishing cancer cells (and a few types of tissue e.g. hair) vs most types of non-cancer cells?
Re:Why cancer cells waste so much energy
by peterdemic on Friday January 15, 2021 @02:14PM
(#25794935)
Yes, that's correct! My bad for not being more clear!
Re:Why cancer cells waste so much energy
by TrackerFF on Friday January 15, 2021 @01:48PM
(#25794553)
Quite some time I had classes on this - but I believe chemo (some at least?) is designed to attack cells with same growth-rate as cancer cells. So they're not attacking just everything in a non-discriminatory fashion - but cells with similar growth as cancer cells, become collateral damage, so to speak.
This is why some chemo will result in for example hairloss; Because the cancer you're being treated for, has the same growth rate as the cells in your hair - and thus the chemo will also kill those cells.