Cancer is cruel: sometimes, life-saving surgery to cut out a tumour may be the very thing that spreads it to other parts of the body. But this spreading process can be hampered by giving a compound that is already used to treat heart failure. Most people who die from cancer do so because their tumour has spread, or metastasised. Yet most of today's cancer drugs don't stop metastasis, they just kill any cancer cells they come into contact with. The hope is that the compound could be part of a new class of drugs designed to block tumour spread . "This could be a very important advance," says Andrew Reynolds of the Institute of Cancer Research in London. Cancers are much easier to treat if they have not yet spread. A few years ago, a team led by Takashi Nojiri of Osaka University in Japan was exploring whether giving a drug called atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) to patients before lung cancer surgery could reduce subsequent heart problems. ANP is a signalling molecule found in the heart and has been used as a treatment for heart failure in Japan for 20 years. The approach worked – and it also had another benefit. Two years later, 91 per cent of people treated with ANP were free from secondary tumours, compared with 75 per cent of a control group. You shall not pass Experiments in mice revealed that the molecule makes blood vessel walls less sticky, preventing circulating cancer cells from adhering to them and pushing their way through to form new tumours. Because ANP affects the blood vessels rather than the cancer cells, it could be used for all kinds of tumours, says Nojiri, who is working with the Japanese drug company Shionogi to turn ANP into a cancer drug. As in Nojiri's study, if given before surgery, it could be used to reduce the chance of the operation "seeding" tumours elsewhere in the body. It is thought that cutting into the tumour sometimes lets cancer cells escape. ANP could also be used as a general anti- metastasis drug, given whether or not people need cancer surgery. Nojiri speculates that the presence of natural ANP in the heart might explain why secondary tumours rarely form there.
By Dr.Paul Bundi Karau I arrived at Kanyakine High School on 18th February 1999 a small village boy. I had never been to a boarding school, and certainly this is the furthest from home I had ever gone. The boys who were assigned to escort me to Mungania dorm looked at my stunted height and loudly wondered how I would survive in Beast's school. "Who is Beast?" I asked in bewilderment. "You will know." Musyoki answered curtly. It didn't take me long to know who Beast was. The following day, as the 10 o'clock tea was being served, I heard a commotion, with boys leaving their tea and running helter-skelter towards the classrooms. I was a fresh mono, so I didn't know what was happening. I ran along the pavement, and came upon a mighty man, who appeared to be adjusting his trousers. He yanked his belt and thrust one whip towards me. I had encountered Beast himself. He was tall, imposing, burly and endowed with a thunderous voice that could re...
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