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Nick Gannon, a biochemistry major, cultures cells in the Biomedical Research Facility on Tuesday afternoon. Gannon, among other researchers, is looking into anti-cancer agents produced naturally by the body.

Nick Gannon, a biochemistry major, cultures cells in the Biomedical Research Facility on Tuesday afternoon. Gannon, among other researchers, is looking into anti-cancer agents produced naturally by the body.

Lab studies the body's tactics against cancer

Cells near tumors may produce remedies without side effects

However, a combination of long-standing evidence and new advances in the field is painting a potentially different story — one suggesting that a lot of what you think you know about cancer is wrong.

UNM Assistant Professor Dr. Kristina Trujillo and her lab have reported discovering that in many cases of breast cancer, the cells surrounding the tumors perform potent anti-cancer activities that hint at a potential new treatment method. These cells — specifically ones about 5 centimeters from the tumor — secrete tiny sacks, known as exosomes, which, when administered to cancer cells, causes them to die.

According to the American Cancer Society, approximately one in eight women in the United States, or 12 percent, will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer at some point in their lives, making it one of the leading causes of cancer deaths in women, second only to lung cancer. However, long-standing evidence suggests that the true incidence of breast cancer may actually be much higher.

A recent review article published in Nature Medicine cites evidence for this argument from numerous studies over the past few decades. In one, researchers performed autopsies on women in their 40s who had no diagnosis of cancer and had died of other causes, shockingly finding that 40 percent of those women had breast cancer at the times of their deaths. A similar study looking at men found that 34 percent of men in their 40s, and 9 percent of men in their 20s, had signs of prostate cancer.

“I think they would’ve never known about it,” Trujillo said. “Most people have had cancer, but our bodies have a way to detect these cancers and just get rid of them.”

These findings, Trujillo said, suggest that many or even most people, at some point in their lives, are unknowingly carrying around tumors or cancerous cells, and their bodies are somehow destroying the tumors before the individuals ever have any idea — a finding that is not limited to breast and prostate cancer.

Trujillo believes that the anti-cancer exosomes may be an important part of the body’s natural defense against tumors. She said that in many cases a person diagnosed with less-advanced breast cancer would likely have defeated it on their own.

“A lot of people have speculated that about half the people that have (less-advanced cancer) wouldn’t have even known they had it,” Trujillo said. “But we find it, we treat them, they get chemo, they get mastectomies — and they would never have needed it. The thing is, we can’t tell the difference between the people who need it and the people who don’t.”

Currently, Trujillo and her lab are working to identify what components within the exosomes cause cancer cell death, using mainly tissue from mastectomies performed at UNM Hospital. She also hopes that her research will lead to markers that can help determine whether a person with a cancer diagnosis actually needs treatment, she said.

“Some patients actually have this really potent effect (from their exosomes),” Trujillo said. “Some patients don’t have an effect at all. What we want to do is identify the patient samples that have this strong effect, and then find out what’s in there that’s different.”

Trujillo said she is working with a group of local investors to start a new company called Exo Vita Biosciences, with the goal of moving these studies into clinical stages and perhaps develop a new, less harsh treatment option.

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“I think the therapeutics currently, like surgery and chemotherapy, are pretty relentless and really uncomfortable for people,” said Nicholas Gannon, a recent UNM graduate who has been working on the project.

His opinion is mirrored by Randi Smith, a graduate student in Trujillo’s lab, whose interest in this project is due in part to a family history of breast cancer.

“I feel that working on this project gives me exactly what I want out of science: to be a part of something that may help many people and families in their struggle with cancer,” Smith said. “I feel that this project has the potential to provide patients and families with an alternative cancer treatment that won’t obliterate their health and bodies while battling cancer.”

Gannon said he chose to join Trujillo’s lab because of its track record in looking at alternative therapeutics for cancer treatment — a move motivated by time spent doing volunteer work with children with cancer.

“I saw how the chemotherapy is just really, really hard on them — and not even just the patient, but the family. For some reason I just connected with that,” Gannon said.

Lauren Topper is a freelance reporter with the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com, or on Twitter @DailyLobo.

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