Air pollution cancer breakthrough will rewrite the rules

[gniv]

> 99% of people in the world live in places where air pollution exceeds the WHO guidelines

Wow. I knew cities are polluted but this is extreme. In 50 years we might look at pollution as we look at smoking now, a terrible self-inflicted wound on civilization that took way too long to acknowledge and fix.

[AtlasBarfed]

This is why BEV adoption should result in a very large drop in cancer and other health problems.

EV drivers have told me after a bit of ownership, they see ICE cars as thoroughly filthy, loud, dirty, inefficient, and almost rude.

Our addiction to being able to drive places with but a mere tap of a gas pedal has blinded us to the devil's bargain of the ICE. I honestly think that a great deal of the instinctive hatred of cyclists is tied to how deeply the power and convenience and freedom of driving has ensconced itself into our subconscious.

We shall see, I guess.

[ryukafalz]

It’s the suburbs too. Not hard to see why: we’ve reshaped our society around cars, and they’re spewing pollutants into the air everywhere.

EVs won’t necessarily improve this, by the way: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S13522...

> The outcome is critically dependent upon the extent of regenerative braking relative to use of friction brakes on the BEV, but overall there will be only modest changes to the total local emissions of particles from a passenger car built to current emissions standards.

[DoingIsLearning]

Don't forget the fraud of the whole Dieselgate scandal.

We were all getting excess NO2 pumped out of diesel engines. Effectively shortening all our lifespans.

[goodpoint]

> In 50 years we might look at pollution as we look at smoking now, a terrible self-inflicted wound on civilization

I'm convinced in 500 years we'll look as today's civilization as barbarian.

Like drug addicts, we know we are poisoning ourselves and destroying the natural resources we depend on and we cannot stop.

[elif]

Like bathrooms next to kitchens in roman plumbing, like lead pipes, like asbestos insulation, or like nonstick pans.

The course of history is full of misteps. Of course, an important distinction is that now we are all individually at varying ideological stages of incredulous reflection about these.

[dotcoma]

Why wait 50 years??

[nosianu]

So... what are possible side effects of suppressing that signal? As I understand the article, one would have to do so long-term. I mean, is that signal really so useless? I would think it occurs for a reason?

My understanding is that sure, inflammation is a heavy weapon of the immune system that causes quite a bit collateral damage because it's more like a weapon of mass destruction instead of carefully targeted strikes. I would think it exists for a reason though, although frequently repeated use, again as I understand it, is not how it's supposed to work. Still, suppressing it entirely and long-term, what would that do?

[icegreentea2]

There are a variety of inflammation pathways and signalling proteins. It's possible that IL-8beta has a uniquely high cancer inducing potential, and that when blocked, other signalling proteins can still generate appropriate inflammation for proper function.

But ya, long-term effects are going to have to be studied. Luckily, it looks like IL-8b inhibitors are used to treat other chronic diseases, so we can pull some data out of there (though a lot of them are auto-immune, so the validity of extrapolating to a more healthy population is maybe questionable).

It's also possible that we can develop a more precise approach that moderates the signalling response of IL-8beta without fully suppressing it.

[thebeastie]

Proponents of fasting will love this, since the idea is that not eating for a while will cause the body to scavenge for this old / damaged cell material.

[highwaylights]

And is that nonsense or is there evidence that backs it up?

[DFHippie]

But here we want cells to eat themselves, not damaged organelles. I believe nuclear DNA isn't among the things cleaned up by autophagy.

[FollowingTheDao]

Spermidine does this as well.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15548627.2018.1...

If you want to know how to increase it ask me how.

[lonelyasacloud]

"The idea of taking a cancer-blocking pill if you live in a heavily polluted area is not completely fanciful. " - Prof Charles Swanton

Really interesting and, obviously major news in the battle against cancer.

In terms of research funding; wonder if it will lead to industries linked with cancer, e.g. tobacco, alcohol, motor vehicles ... , quietly starting to fund prophylactic R&D as well?

[wcerfgba]

Has a dystopian ring to it, "we don't need to clear up the nuclear waste, just take your thyroid pills and everything will be fine"

[tempodox]

Win-win: No need to invest into changing life-threatening tech and make money selling the protection. Profits can only rise!

[ahaucnx]

It would be interesting to know if the probability of developing cancer has a linear relationship with the amount of air pollution. For example would double the amount of PM2.5 pollution double the cancer risk?

[dotcoma]

Probably quadruple (but I’m just guessing)

[zeristor]

This sounds amazing, and anything that go towards curing cancer is fantastic.

I do hope this means that we don’t give up trying to reduce pollution though, that it won’t sap the resolve for clean air.

[AstralStorm]

It's about prevention, and the way from observation that cancers need a trigger to actual workable preventatives is long and fraught with failure.

[stereoradonc]

This is a known fact: PM 2.5 causes irreversible inflammation of the specific cells, leading to an immune cascading effect that may go unregulated. The timing of the news is with the Oncology conference, so it attracts more attention. It is rehashed news. It requires an environmental clean up, but must be balanced by the costs. It is usually difficult to reverse sunk costs for prior human activity. Often, it requires careful deliberation around vehicular pollution.

[FollowingTheDao]

"And it may now be possible to develop drugs that stop cancers forming."

Maybe try to stop the pollution?

[layer8]

Way less profitable.

[atonse]

If I were at a cigarette company, I’d be telling my bosses to fund this research more so then they’d be able to market “cigarettes that don’t cause cancer” right?

[leobg]

You mean arguing that our air is so dirty that lighting up a cigarette and inhaling actually improves the quality of the air that you breathe? :P

[tartoran]

Wonderful, don’t worry about polition, just take this pill… I know it’s cynical take but we should take pollution way more seriously in the place

[phlofy]

Don't know about you but I'd rather not get cancer while we sort out our polution problems, thank you very much.

[BiteCode_dev]

So... zombie cells cause by pollution?

[ITI03]

Seems like a convenient discovery, given the circumstances at the moment.