Penn State and the University of Michigan collaborate on cancer cell and infection research – The Daily Collegian Online

As Penn State students worked to raise money for childhood cancer research, two researchers at Penn State worked on a study determining the best treatment methods for cancer and infections.

Dr. Andrew Read and Elsa Hansen, from Penn State, and Dr. Robert Woods, from the University of Michigan, all co-authored a paper on the research. The main goal of their research was to determine whether containment or aggressive medication was the best method of treatment for cancer or a serious infection. The research hinges on delaying drug resistance in cells, which would make the problem much harder to treat.

When containing cancer or an infection, just enough drug is used to keep the cancer or infection from spreading too much beyond its original area.

Elsa Hansen, a research associate at Penn State and co-author of the study, explained why just containment may sometimes be a surprisingly good treatment.

Health care providers and researchers are starting to question whether the traditional approach of aggressively treating a cancer or infection is really the best option for a patient, Hansen said via email.

Using a containment strategy may seem counterintuitive, but the idea is to leverage the fact that drug sensitive cells can competitively suppress the expansion of drug resistant cells, Hansen said, mentioning that drugs without immunity to medicine can block the spread of resistant cancer cells or infection. A milder form of treatment is used to control medicine-sensitive cells, which then control the resistant cells.

In these situations, aggressively treating the patient with a drug may cause the patients cancer or infection to develop an immunity to the treatment. In the case of infections, the containment method leads to the bodys immune system fighting off the resistant cells. In the case of cancer, it slows the spread as long as possible.

This research proves that containment of cells is a viable option those in the medical field should consider more often. However, the research also highlighted that there are situations where aggressive treatment is the preferred choice. The traditional approach to treating cancer and infections is still viable when containment will not improve the situation.

As resistance is involved in most cancer and infection associated deaths, Hansen believes researching new drugs and novel forms of treatment is crucial. However, she stated that its also important to figure out how to extend the life of the drugs we have, part of the teams research goal.

Collaborating with a clinical lecturer from the University of Michigan proved paramount to the success of the research. Dr. Robert Woods, co-author of the study and a specialist in internal medicine, infectious diseases at the University of Michigan, had unique skills to contribute to the research. As an expert in putting research into use in the medical field, particularly in the hospital on the universitys campus, Woods had the unique opportunity to see the research happening in his workplace.

Its sometimes hard to translate evolutionary concepts into clinical use, Woods said.

The combination of his practical experience with treating cancer and infection cells combined with the mathematical and theoretical work of Hansen and Read led to the success of this research, Woods added.

He focused on the physical aspects of the research instead of the theoretical aspects as someone who works in the hospital. Here, the research might have an effect by changing the way doctors treat cancer or infections.

Both Hansen and Woods said they found the collaborative research to be a positive experience, as the unique combination of skills and resources at the two universities made the research such a success.

With today's technology, I think long distance collaborations can work really well, Hansen said. Increasing ease of communication across universities can open up the opportunity for more collaborations such as this study.

This research has been highly regarded by Reads and Hansens colleagues at Penn State.

This is really important research because it points to a course of treatment that is not just the hell and fury approach, hit the cancer with all we have, Dr. David Hughes, an assistant professor of entomology and biology at Penn State said. These models will considerably aid in better decision making.

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Penn State and the University of Michigan collaborate on cancer cell and infection research - The Daily Collegian Online