Scientists at Ohio State University claim that, according to their research, the spread of cancer is encouraged by a gene that is activated by stress.
This gene is known in the scientific community as ATF3.
The ATF3 gene negatively affects an individual's immune system and makes it easier for cancer cells that are present in one part of the body to form colonies in other areas, a process also known as metastasis.
According to the Daily Mail , experiments have shown that, at least in the case of mice, cancer has a harder time spreading when the host's ATF3 gene is not activated. When the ATF3 gene starts working, cancer cells seem to have no problem migrating to other areas of the body.
“Cancer cells were always the same, but we had different hosts [lab animals]. The primary tumors were similar in size, but only in the lab animal where ATF3 was activated – the stress gene – the cancer cells had an effective metastasis”, says Professor Tsonwin Hai regarding these experiments.
Researchers hope that, “playing” with this gene and with its “pinning”, it may be possible to stop the spread of cancer.
Are you saying that this was the reason for the well-known story of our compatriot from Ikaria, Stamatis Moraitis, who, while doctors in America gave him nine months to live, returned to Ikaria and lived until he was 103 years old?
