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2. Disrupting cellular dynamics - Current research in developing new cancer treatments typically focus on disrupting the activity of a specific metabolic molecule or hormone. The above discussion indicates how this approach can fail to achieve long term cures, since the cancer cells can simply call into play alternative pathways to circumvent the effects of this disruption. An alternative approach would be to disrupt the cellular dynamics itself, in particular certain feedback loops. Carlson and Doyle proposed 1that systems that acquire robustness against conventional perturbations tend to become extremely fragile to unexpected perturbations. Researchers have demonstrated this concept in a few laboratory studies. This approach suggests an ideal treatment method, that an abnormal cellular state could be driven to a more normal state, so that the cells are no longer cancerous.
1. Carlson, J. and Doyle, J. Complexity and Robustness. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. Vol. 99, Suppl. 1, pp. 2538-2545 (Feb. 19, 2002) 2. Kitano, H. Cancer as a Robust System: Implications for Anticancer Therapy. Nature Reviews Cancer. Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 227-235 (March 2004) Go To Page: 1 2
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