Could gravity murder cancer?

How to cure cancer has been a big question since forever and for a good reason. Almost 40% of people worldwide get diagnosed with some kind of cancer at some point in their life. And almost everyone has a relative or a friend who has gotten the diagnosis so no wonder everyone is so eager to find this magical cure for cancer. Unfortunately, that magic cure will never exist.  

We already have bunch of different treatment options ranging from different kind of drugs to more hardcore treatments like surgery and chemotherapy. However, these treatment options come with side effects like nausea, weight loss, weight gain, mood changes, engorgement, headache, and fatigue. Therefore, it is extremely important to come up with new treatment options. 

Now researchers have been looking into a totally new cure method specifically for breast cancer. Women’s breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer in the world, and it is the 5th most deadly cancer in the world. The new interesting answer for this could be microgravity. Basically, microgravity means low gravity which means that miniscule forces are experienced. This is what astronauts in space experience and the reasons for things floating in space.  

Human bodies have evolved in the presence of gravity therefore it is quite intuitive that the absence of it would have some consequences. For a healthy person the consequences are rather negative and unwanted. These effects are reduced immunity and bone degeneration to name a few. However, these changes are only temporary, and they can be reversible once the person gets back to gravity’s influence 

For unhealthy cells like cancer cells, the effects of microgravity could actually be desired. Microgravity increases apoptosis aka cell death. It also prevents the migration of the cancer cells and therefore it could prevent the cancer spreading to other parts of the body which is generally the most dangerous part of any type of cancer. Normally used anticancer drugs inhibit various molecules and pathways to kill cancer cells, slow down their growth and minimize their spread in the body. Microgravity could do this too and combining these two methods could be an answer for beating cancer up. 

So, could the answer be to send people to space to be cured? For the space enthusiast the answer is unfortunately no. Real microgravity is not used because it can exist only for a short time. Well, if we are not sending people to space how could we achieve microgravity? It is not possible to remove gravity or shield the cells from gravity completely. However, microgravity can be simulated by creating a free-fall condition. For example, plane nosediving can create short time microgravity conditions. 

However, all of this is still heavily under research and because of the difficulty of utilizing microgravity there is no need to expect this to be the next revolutionary cure for cancer in the near future. Anyway, microgravity has the potential to be the next big thing in the cancer treatment world so you can keep your hopes up. 

 

 

 

Author: 

Joanna Eloranta 

 

Article: 

Medha Medha, Amit Roy, “Microgravity: New aspect for breast cancer treatment, a review”, Acta Astronautica, Volume 190, 2022, Pages 62-73, SSN 0094-5765, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.09.045.(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576521005312)