Cancer cells in the breast would mostly grow during nighttime sleep and spread through the sleeping body. A major scientific discovery researchers from the University Hospital of Basel in Switzerland, which would allow ostop the treatments during this night period. The details of Géraldine Zamansky, journalist at the Magazine de la Santé on France 5.
franceinfo: A Swiss team has discovered that breast cancer spreads mainly at night and that it should therefore be curbed above all at that time?
Geraldine Zamansky: Exactly. It all started with breast cancer patients who agreed to have their blood taken at 4 a.m., in the middle of the night, while their body was at rest, and another at 10 a.m., in the activity phase. . And the researchers discovered that their cancer did not rest at all at night, on the contrary.
They indeed found a very large quantity of cancer cells in the samples taken at 4am. We are here at the heart of the spread of a cancer, starting from a tumour. Some abnormal cells can go into the bloodstream and go on to form metastases. These are called circulating tumor cells. Well there were 4 times more in the middle of the night, and with much more dangerous characteristics than during the day.
Can these researchers count and measure the dangerousness of these cancer cells?
Yes, they are able to study the genes of these tumor cells. And they found that night owl cells are genetically very strong at creating metastases. While those of the day are almost zero in this area.
To stop the spread of breast cancer in the body, it would therefore be necessary to fight the battle at night. This is one of the avenues opened up by this Swiss discovery published in the major scientific journal Nature. This is what Dr. Sylvie Giacchetti, an oncologist at Saint-Louis Hospital in Paris, explained to me with enthusiasm. She is indeed one of the rare pioneers of cancer chronotherapy. They have already started looking for treatment schedules that improve their effectiveness and limit side effects.
So the work of the Swiss team could lead to changing the timing of chemotherapy, for example?
Yes exactly, and for chemotherapy, it is already possible with pumps that inject the treatment at night. But beware, Dr. Giacchetti told me that all cancers probably did not have this nocturnal spread observed from breast tumors. There might even be variations from patient to patient.
So perhaps the ideal would be to identify for each individual the peak of activity of their cancerous cells and to adapt the rhythm of the treatment. That way, we would send the maximum number of soldiers into battle at the most strategic time. With more chance of success, and therefore, more lives saved.
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