SCI Window | "Nature": Please close your eyes in dark, please open your eyes for cancer cells, please transfer cancer cells

When you fall asleep, cancer cells are awake!

I did not expect that when the night came and we entered the dream, it was trying to grow up.

Over the years, cancer has been one of the biggest threats to human health. Although there are many discovery and progress in the field of clinical care and cancer biology, our knowledge of this disease still has a key gap to be resolved. Among the many phenomena in the development of cancer, what needs to be understood most is why cancer cells are metastasized, and what ways it spreads from the origin tissue to other parts of the body. What will happen during the transfer process?

CTC (cyclic tumor cells, Circulating Tumor Cell) is a collective name for various types of tumor cells that exist in peripheral blood. At this stage, the CTC testing is to measure the existing CTC in the peripheral blood, monitor the trend of CTC types and quantitative changes in order to monitor tumor dynamics and evaluate the treatment effect in real time, and achieve real -time individual treatment.

A few days ago, the results published in the "Nature" magazine showed that the CTC was easily transferred during the static period (night), and the CTC generated by the activity period (daytime) lacks the ability to transfer.

As we all know, some cancer cells in the in situ area transform into circulatory tumor cells (CTC) and transfer to other parts of the human body to form metastatic tumors. This is an important cause of the health of the disease and seriously affecting the health of cancer patients.

In order to observe the concentration of circulatory cancer cells in different states of the human body (sober and sleeping), researchers have collected them with 30 women with breast cancer at 10 am (awake) and 4 am (sleeping) at 4 am and 4 am (sleeping). Blood samples, most of the circulating cancer cells (CTC), and CTC groups are from samples obtained at night.

In the sample collected by researchers at night, the number of CTC (78.3%) found in the rest phase, including a single CTC, CTC cluster and CTC -white blood cells (WBC).

In the sleeping stage, there are more circulating tumor cells

Subsequently, they verified this phenomenon in mice of breast cancer models. Researchers found that during the day of rest, the CTC in the blood of mice would rise to its peak, and the CTC that entered the blood during the day was more likely to develop into a new tumor. And some key day and night rhythm hormones, such as melatonin, testosterone and glucocorticoids may promote the production of CTC, and insulin may directly promote the proliferation of tumor cells in the body. This study may provide a new theoretical basis for the treatment of tumors with metastases.

"The escape of circulatory cancer cells from the primitive tumor is controlled by melatonin, and melatonin determines our rhythm of day and night." Researchers said that CTC's time dependence may change doctors' evaluation and treatment of patients. However, most of the conclusions of this study were obtained through mouse tests. Before incorporating day and night rhythm into standard practice, these findings need to be tested through large -scale clinical trials.

As early as 2014, a study of Nature sub -magazines showed that cancer cells spread faster at night than during the day, because of a hormone: glucocorticoid (GC) suppressed the epidermal growth factor receptor (GC) EGFR), due to the decline in the secretion of glucocorticoids at night, EGFR is highly active, so these cancer cells spread faster at night.

Researchers said, "The current cancer treatment is usually performed during the day. At this time, the patient can inhibit the spread of cancer cells. Maybe what we need is not a new type of treatment, but for the new treatment timetable for the current drugs."

Types/Edit: Liu Zibo, Qin Miao

Review: Wang Lina

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