It seems individual cancer cells send out the same distress signals as wounds, tricking immune cells into helping them grow into tumours. The finding suggests that anti-inflammatory drugs could help to combat or prevent cancer. "Lifelong, if you take a small quantity of something that 1 inflammation (炎症), such as aspirin, it could reduce the risk of cancer," says Adam Hurlstone of the University of Manchester, UK.
When tissue is wounded or infected it produces hydrogen peroxide. White blood cells called leukocytes (白血球) are among the first cells to react to this 2 , homing in to kill the infectious agent, clean up the mess and rebuild 2 tissue. At first, the tissue becomes inflamed, but this subsides as the wound is cleared and rebuilding continues. Now, a study in zebra fish shows that this process is also instigated (唆使) and sustained by tumour cells.
Hurlstone and his colleagues 4 engineered zebra fish so that skin cells and leukocytes would show different 5 under ultraviolet light. Some zebra fish were also engineered to have cancerous skin cells.
The team found that the cancerous skin cells secreted (分泌) hydrogen peroxide, 6 leukocytes which helped them on their way to become a tumour. When the team 7 hydrogen peroxide production in the zebra fish, the leukocytes were no longer attracted to cancerous cells and the cancer colonies reduced in 8
More alarmingly, the researchers found that healthy skin cells 9 to the cancerous ones also produced hydrogen peroxide, suggesting that cancer cells 10 co-opt them into triggering inflammation.
A. adjacent
B. blocked
C. changed
D. colors
E. damaged
F. figure
G. genetically
H. hue
I. hurtful
J. number
K. somehow
L. somewhat
M. summoning
N. suppresses
O. trigger