Keeping it healthy could allow patients to survive much higher doses of chemotherapy

NOTE: We are not pushers nor proponents of the administration of chemotherapy, but we acknowledge that the largest majority of the public will go in that direction, due to pressure of their physician, or because their insurance company has the only financial means to provide your care. The information provided in this column is still worth the read, as much of it (chemo excepted) follows the protocols of proper dietary practices, as outlined by Dr. Kelley in his Self-Test for the Different Metabolic Types. (Ed.)

• Many patients now not given enough cancer drugs as dose would be lethal

• New findings show protecting the digestive system could solve problem

• Allows patients to tolerate much higher doses of chemo and radiotherapy

• Uses molecules to stimulate stem cells so they repair the damage

• Could eventually cure advanced cancers that have spread around the body

Protecting the digestive system could be the key to curing deadly cancer, experts have claimed.

Keeping the gastro-intestinal tract healthy and functioning may allow patients to tolerate normally lethal doses of chemo and radiotherapy, research suggests.

Deadly advanced cancers that have metastasised, or spread around the body, could then be eradicated, scientists believe.

The research is at a very early stage and conducted on mice, which were treated to help them survive powerful cancer therapies.

But lead scientist Dr Jian-Guo Geng, from the University of Michigan in the U.S., said:

‘It’s our belief that this could eventually cure later-staged metastasised cancer. People will not die from cancer, if our prediction is true.’

A major problem with chemotherapy agents and radiation treatment is that they can kill patients before curing cancer.

Dr Geng’s team found that shielding the intestines from the harsh effects of such therapies may tip the balance in favour of survival.

The scientists discovered molecules that can be used to stimulate intestinal stem cells, causing them to go into overdrive and repair the chemical and radiation damage.

As a result, the body is able to ingest nutrients, stop toxins passing from the digestive system to the bloodstream, and perform other critical functions.

In the study, reported in the journal Nature, up to three quarters of the treated mice survived doses of chemotherapy and radiation that should have killed them.

Animals that were not injected with the protective molecules died.

‘All tumours from different tissues and organs can be killed by high doses of chemotherapy and radiation, but the current challenge for treating the later-staged metastasised cancer is that you actually kill the patient before you kill the tumour,’ said Dr Geng.

‘Now you have a way to make a patient tolerant to lethal doses of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In this way, the later-staged, metastasised cancer can be eradicated by increased doses of chemotherapy and radiation.

‘If you can keep the gut going, you can keep the patient going longer,’ Dr Geng said. ‘Now we have found a way to protect the intestine. The next step is to aim for a 100 per cent survival rate in mice who are injected with the molecules and receive lethal doses of chemotherapy and radiation.’

His team has been working with the molecules, known as R-spondin1 and Slit2, for more than a decade.

The molecules bind with proteins in the intestine to drive healing stem cell activity.

In their paper, the scientists concluded: ‘Our study indicates that Slit2 and Rspo1 co-operatively induce ISCs (intestinal stem cells) for intestinal homeostasis and repair and significantly prolong overall survival following lethal doses of chemoradiotherapy.

‘To the best of our knowledge, the combined Slit2/Rspo1 treatment, used as an adjuvant (additional) approach, is the first example to demonstrate the feasibility of inducing endogenous adult tissue-specific stem cells for organ and tissue repair with far-reaching medical impact.’

Professor Owen Sansom, deputy director of Cancer Research UK’s Beatson Institute, said the findings were ‘intriguing’ but urged caution.

‘This research was only carried out in mice, and – crucially – didn’t show whether the method used would have any effects on cancer cells, which are also thought to be driven by stem cells,’ he said.

‘So, while these findings are a useful blueprint for how we could focus future effort to protect cancer patients’ digestive systems, this exciting prospect is still a way off yet.’

Written for and published at the Daily Mail by Emma Innes, August 1, 2013.

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