Brd4 and other new drugs

cb123

Here's the link: BRD4 Inhibitor Inhibits Colorectal Cancer Growth and Metastasis

This video brought up some questions for me. I just can't figure it out, I'm hoping maybe someone can help me.

You begin with a breast carcinoma and it spreads to your blood, wouldn't you then have a leukemia?

Then you have a leukemia and it causes a tumor in your lymph nodes, wouldn't you then have a lymphoma?

So if you have a leukemia, such as bone mets, couldn't you treat it with leukemia medications or do you still treat it with breast cancer remedies?

I'm just not understanding. There are some significant products available for these other cancers - are they not used because this began as a breast carcinoma?

I understand that there are many different cancer profiles, but don't all the leukemia cancers fall under the leukemia treatment umbrella?

If not, why would we care if breast cancer metastasizes, there aren't any more breasts for it to affect? Once it reaches the blood treat it as leukemia, if it reaches the liver or colon treat it accordingly.

I no longer have breasts or breast cancer, but there's cancer in my blood.

What am I missing?

cb

floaton

cb, breast cancer cells that make it into the blood, then lungs, brain, or bones are still at their core breast cancer cells, with (for the most part) specific characteristic cell surface markers and pathways of functioning. While all cells in our bodies start out the same, they differentiate into various kinds of cells in utero. And once they're determined to be one kind of cell, they can't go back and change into another whole type of cell. Leukemias are blood cancers where you have abnormal (white) blood cancer cells in your blood. Breast cancer cells that happen to be in the blood don't work / look like / get killed the same way as blood cancer cells, so the same treatments don't work. Not to confuse the issue, but sometimes leukemia (blood cancer) cells make it into cerebrospinal fluid around the brain. But that doesn't mean that it's now brain cancer, or that it can be killed by brain cancer chemo, it just means it's blood cancer that's moved from its original location (the bloodstream) to somewhere it really doesn't belong (the brain). An analogy might be like when you're at the store and someone has left an apple on the shelf next to the rice chex in the grocery aisle. It's still fruit, not cereal, just where it really doesn't belong, away from all the things like it after having hopped on someone's cart (bloodstream) to get there. Hope that helps a little!

cb123

Thank you Floaton.

That helps, and it's what I was afraid of. Just making sure.

I just horrid when some remedy works so well on one cancer and not at all on another.

Thank you,

cb