Nevertheless,
Chemotherapy would damage dna accelerate:
A new study. Moreover, published in Nature Geneticsreveals that chemotherapy treatments, although effective against tumors, leave lasting consequences on the DNA of healthy cells. Consequently, In the long term, these alterations could promote the appearance of serious illnesses and accelerate cellular aging.
Anti -cancer treatments do not spare healthy cells. In addition, Researchers have just highlighted, in patients of all ages treated with chemotherapy, genetic deterioration comparable to premature aging. In addition, One of the most striking cases concerns a 3 -year -old child. Therefore, whose blood cells presented the genetic stigma of an octogenarian, only a few months after his chemotherapy.
Mutations that mark for life – Chemotherapy would damage dna accelerate
The study. carried out on 32 individuals (including 23 having received heavy treatments against cancer), shows that chemotherapeutic agents – in particular derivatives of platinum and alkylating agents – cause permanent mutations in the DNA of chemotherapy would damage dna accelerate blood cells. These mutations can be identified by “mutagenic signatures”, real genetic scars characteristic of the treatment received.
These traces are visible for years, even decades, after the end of chemotherapy. For scientists. this discovery could explain why cancer survivors have a higher risk of developing other serious pathologies with age: cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, strokes or dementia.
Treatments not all equal
Not all chemotherapy drugs have the same genetic impact. For example. cyclophosphamide, frequently used to treat breast cancers or myeloma, seems to cause less mutations than others in its category. On the other hand. older products such as ProCarbazine, today abandoned in certain pediatric protocols, are associated with a high risk of secondary cancers and infertility.
The results of this study strengthen calls to develop more selective, less aggressive anticancer treatments for healthy tissues. Immunotherapies, targeted therapies or personalized treatments appear as credible tracks for the future.
Today. failing chemotherapy would damage dna accelerate to still be able to protect the healthy cells exposed, some doctors believe that the best we can do is to best adapt the doses and favor other therapeutic approaches when possible. For the moment, there is no proven method to prevent genetic damage to non -cancer cells.
A still limited. but essential study
Despite a relatively modest sample of patients, the researchers believe that their conclusions are robust, as they confirm suspicions already formulated in previous studies. It remains to understand why some patients undergo these massive alterations. while others seem spared: is it linked to the duration of treatment, the number of drugs administered or the time sold since the end of therapy? Additional research is necessary.
This observation, as worrying as it is, does not question the usefulness of chemotherapy in many cases. But it recalls the urgency of a finer anticancer medicine. more human, and concerned chemotherapy would damage dna accelerate about the long -term consequences for those who survive the disease.
Photo credit: DR
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