Neuroblastoma is a cancerous condition where the tumor cells are found in underdeveloped or developing nerve cells. It can occur in any part of the body but mostly affects the adrenal gland over the kidneys
Kids aged 5 and below are the most common victims of neuroblastoma. The cancerous cells can also be found in the neck, stomach, pelvis, and bones. The common symptoms are high fever and loss of appetite including whole-body fatigue with the appearance of lumps in the site of appearance. People may also suffer from extreme weight loss, bulging, and darkness around the eyes. Treatment for this type of cancer is to surgically remove the cells accompanied by chemotherapy, and radiotherapy in some cases stem cell transplantation is suggested.
Neuroblastoma Occurance and Proliferation
The major attribute of neuroblastomas is cell heterogeneity, where the cells grow and proliferate in large numbers at the particular region of origin. This is grown in vitro and produces a lineage of cells that are homogeneous (similar kind) and phenotypically the same (uniform size and shape). These cells affect the immature type of cells where the cells are not fully grown and alter their nature to cancerous and then divide multifold to form Tumors.
Findings by Lund University
Tumor cells are difficult to study because of their rapidly changing characteristics and rate of division. New innovation in cancer research has led many computational and live models to predict the course of action of the cancer cells and its modality of invasion into new cells in the body. Simulation of a model that resembles human body function might aid various studies on treatment methods for deadly diseases.
Researchers at Lund University have successfully recreated the condition that mirrors the qualities of the neuroblastoma cells in mouse models. This aggressive tumor was not responding to the drugs given during chemotherapy as these cells are in the embryonic developmental stage, which serves them as an apt medium to change their ability and survive in the changing environments. This targeted embryonic-cell therapy with specific drugs may lead to many advancements in cell treatment to cure patients.
Lund [Sweden], November 13 (ANI): One of the reasons why childhood cancer neuroblastoma becomes resistant to chemotherapy has been identified by researchers at Lund University in Sweden.
The findings are significant for how future treatments should be designed and have been published in Science Advances
Neuroblastoma is an aggressive cancer of the sympathetic nervous system, especially of the adrenal gland. Despite intense treatment with chemotherapy, the disease can be difficult to cure and the prognosis is poor for children who have the aggressive variant. One of the reasons is that the tumour often develops resistance to drugs. In order to understand what happens when the tumour becomes resistant, good disease models are needed that can mimic the complex drug treatment given to patients today:
“Tumours from patients with neuroblastoma look very different, and it is difficult to produce a model that is representative of many patients. This type of challenge often limits medical research”, explains the study’s first author, Adriana Manas, a child cancer researcher at Lund University.