Radioimmunotherapy shows promise against fungal diseases
April 18, 2017
It is now clear that cancer cell mitochondria play a key role in "parasitic" energy transfer between normal fibroblasts and cancer cells, fueling tumor growth and metastasis.
"We have presented new evidence that cancer cell mitochondria are at the heart of tumor cell growth and metastasis," Dr. Lisanti said. "Metabolically, the drug Metformin prevents cancer cells from using their mitochondria, induces glycolysis and lactate production, and shifts cancer cells toward the conventional 'Warburg Effect'. This effectively starves the cancer cells to death".
Personalized Treatment
Although COX mitochondrial activity staining had never been applied to cancer tissues, it could now be used routinely to distinguish cancer cells from normal cells, and to establish negative margins during cancer surgery. And this is a very cost-effective test, since it has been used routinely for muscle-tissue for over 50 years, but not for cancer diagnosis.
What's more, it appears that upregulation of mitochondrial activity is a common feature of human breast cancer cells, and is associated with both estrogen receptor positive (ER+) and negative (ER-) disease. Outcome analysis indicated that this mitochondrial gene signature is also associated with an increased risk of tumor cell metastasis, particularly in ER-negative (ER-) patients.
"Mitochondria are the 'Achilles' heel' of tumor cells," Dr. Lisanti said. "And we believe that targeting mitochondrial metabolism has broad implications for both cancer diagnostics and therapeutics, and could be exploited in the pursuit of personalized cancer medicine."
Source: Thomas Jefferson University