If proponents of cancer quackery exulted in July when a study described how chemotherapy before breast cancer surgery might fuel metastasis — the findings put “a final nail in the coffin” of chemo, one alternative medicine website gloated — research reported last week is going to make them think Christmas came early. A new study has found more evidence that cancer treatment can be a double-edged sword, triggering biological responses that can spur aggressive tumor growth.
“Treatment can promote instead of suppress cancer progression,” said Dr. Sui Huang, a co-author of the paper and professor at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle.
Thanks to what he calls a “Nietzschean response,” what does not kill a tumor “makes it stronger.” Asked if that meant cancer patients should not undergo treatment, he said, “Of course not!” He uses a war-on-terrorism analogy: Although bombing terrorist camps might empower the survivors and enhance recruitment, such “military action to avert an acute threat is often warranted,” even if it also causes the “what did not kill me makes me stronger” problem.
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