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Chemotherapy is more effective intermittently
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Nowadays, a huge number of people suffer from malignant and benign cancerous tumors. Chemotherapy is the most common method of cancer treatment. Depending on the stage of the disease and the type of tumor, chemotherapy of varying intensity is used. A single medicine capable of destroying a malignant tumor has not yet been invented, but scientists around the world do not give up trying to fight the disease.
A promising article was published a few days earlier in the American popular science magazine Nature, which showed that biologists had managed to trace the dependence of cancer cells on drugs that are administered intravenously during chemotherapy. Chemotherapy, as is known, is carried out more than once, and scientists managed to find out that after several repeated courses of treatment, malignant tumor cells become dependent on drugs. This dependence is akin to narcotic dependence, and after some time, these cells find it very difficult to exist without the so-called doping.
Doctors believe that interruptions in chemotherapy procedures can have a beneficial effect on the outcome of the disease, since malignant tumor cells that have developed resistance and immunity to drugs will experience acute discomfort if they are deprived of the supply of drugs.
The chemotherapy procedure itself looks like this: a toxic solution of a substance is injected intravenously or intramuscularly into the human body, which should have a destructive effect on the malignant tumor that has affected the patient. The medicine should also prevent the reproduction and division of foreign cells. Due to the fact that the drug is toxic (although its effect on the tumor is stronger than its effect on the human body), during chemotherapy the patient experiences problems with the immune system. This moment significantly reduces the effectiveness of the treatment, since the body is too weakened and does not have the ability to fight the disease on its own.
During the research, scientists discovered another characteristic feature of chemotherapy, or rather its consequences. A team of biologists from Emeryville University (USA) conducted a series of studies on laboratory mice. These studies were supposed to show the possible consequences of chemotherapy and the reaction of the animal organism to frequent use of the procedures. The last to be examined were several mice sick with skin cancer (melanoma), which were treated with the new drug "vemurafenib". Biologists were surprised and dissatisfied with the result of the treatment of mice: after chemotherapy sessions, the tumors on the skin of the animals not only did not disappear, but were also able to develop immunity and resistance to the cells of the drugs. During the research, scientists discovered that the tumor cells were able to independently synthesize protein, which helped to practically neutralize vemurafenib.
The positive aspect that was revealed during the analysis of the drug's work is that cancer cells become dependent on it. Accordingly, with a gradual reduction in dosage, tumor growth gradually slowed down, and after the end of chemotherapy, it stopped altogether.
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