A latest study, conducted by researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, has added to the growing body of evidence that chemotherapy — which is used to kill cancer cells and stop tumors from growing and costs people upwards of $10,000 per treatment — could in fact help the disease spread, leading to more aggressive forms of cancer.
In the study titled Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Induces Breast Cancer Metastasis Through a TMEM-Mediated Mechanism, researchers found chemotherapy causes cancer cells to spread throughout the body making your cancer worse.
Acknowledging that chemotherapy may shrink a cancerous tumor in the short term, the researchers warned it sends the cancer cells off into other parts of the body to rebuild into lethal tumors in the long term. The Mind Unleashed writes:
"Metastasis, the spreading of a cancerous tumor is already known to be a leading cause of recurrent cancers, especially in people who undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments. It typically means that cancer which may have been contained within one part of the body becomes systemic, making it very hard to reverse – at least with allopathic medicine’s cures."
The researchers used fixed tissue and intravital imaging of a PyMT murine model and patient-derived xenografts in their study. They discovered that chemotherapy increased the density and activity of tumor microenvironment of metastasis (TMEM) and promoted distant metastasis. The findings also suggested that chemotherapy, despite decreasing tumor size, increases the risk of metastatic dissemination.
The study’s lead author Dr George Karagiannis told The Telegraph the findings did not mean cancer patients should avoid chemotherapy, but rather they should be monitored during chemotherapy to check if cancer was starting to circulate and doorways were emerging:
"One approach would be to obtain a small amount of tumor tissue after a few doses of preoperative chemotherapy. If we observe that the markers scores are increased we would recommend discontinuing chemotherapy and having surgery first, followed by postoperative chemotherapy."