One of the latest theories in cancer research is that its not about the cancer cells themselves but its about the environment in which they live - the tumor micro environment - where all these cells, proteins, and whatchamacallits hangout and communicate. How they communicate, how evil cancer cells trick good cells into doing bad things - like turning into cancer cells or creating blood supplies for tumors - and how those triggers could be altered to make them kill off the bad guys (cancer cells).
There is a lot of science involved but if you read this article slowly with a cup of coffee and then think about it, it makes a lot of sense and shows a lot of progress in what is going on in cancer research.
This kind of research, while complicated for the layperson to understand at first, has been going on for a while. I heard Dr Susan Love speak a couple of years ago and she was talking about it then. The tumor micro environment is the area of interest.
What is in the 'neighborhood' of the tumor that made regular cells turn into cancer cells? If you take the average kid and put them in a 'good' neighborhood chances are they will be a good kid. But if you take the average kid and put them in a 'bad' neighborhood, full of gangs and drugs, how long will they stay good? The chances are greater they will be pulled into the 'bad' forces in neighborhood. Is this true in the tumor's neighborhood? Are there bad influences there?
This area of research is very interesting to me and think that this is called progress.
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