Feed: Slashdot
Feed Link: https://slashdot.org/
---

Title: Space is the Perfect Place to Study Cancer and Someday Even Treat It

Link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/06/15/0...

Space may be the perfect place to study cancer - and someday even treat it,"
writes Space.com: On Earth, gravity slows the development of cancer because
cells normally need to be attached to a surface in order to function and
grow. But in space, cancer cell clusters can expand in all directions as
bubbles, like budding yeast or grapes, said Shay Soker, chief science program
officer at Wake Forest's Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Since bubbles
grow larger and more quickly in space, researchers can more easily test
substances clinging to the edge of the larger bubbles, too. Scientists at the
University of Notre Dame are taking advantage of this quirk to develop an in-
space cancer test that needs just a single drop of blood. The work builds on
a series of bubble-formation experiments that have already been conducted on
the ISS. "If cancer screening using our bubble technology in space is
democratized and made inexpensive, many more cancers can be screened, and
everyone can benefit," said Tengfei Luo, a Notre Dame researcher who
pioneered the technology, speaking to the ISS' magazine, Upward. "It's
something we may be able to integrate into annual exams. It sounds far-
fetched, but it's achievable...." Chemotherapy patients could save precious
time, too. In normal gravity, they typically have to spend a half-hour hooked
up to a needle before the medicine begins to take effect, because most drugs
don't dissolve easily in water. But scientists at Merck have discovered that,
in space, their widely used cancer drug pembrolizumab, or Keytruda, can be
administered through a simple injection, because large crystalline molecules
that would normally clump together are suspended in microgravity... Someday,
microgravity could even help patients recovering from surgery heal faster
than they would on Earth, Soker added. "Wound healing in high pressure is
faster. That's the hyperbaric treatment for wounds...." For the Wake Forest
experiment, which is scheduled to launch next spring, scientists will cut out
two sections of a cancer tumor from around 20 patients. One sample will stay
on Earth while the other heads to the ISS, with scientists observing the
difference. The testing will be completed within a week, to avoid any
interference from cosmic radiation. If successful, Soker said, it could set
the stage for diagnostic cancer tests in space available to the general
population - perhaps on a biomedical space station that could launch after
the planned demise of the ISS. "Can we actually design a special cancer space
station that will be dedicated to cancer and maybe other diseases?" Shoker
asked, answering his question in the affirmative. "Pharmaceutical companies
that have deep pockets would certainly support that program."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

---
VRSS v2.1.180528