title: Electrochemistry and nitric oxide mass transport in cancer: why ingestion of sodium nitrite could be effective in treating vascularized tumors.
abstract: Nitric oxide concentrations in tumors do not reach apoptosis inducing levels when their excess NO is rapidly depleted. The out-flux of NO from a tumor to air or blood scales with the contacting area and with the concentration gradient; the gradient scales with the tumor-air or tumor-blood concentration difference and scales inversely with the thickness of the boundary layer, i.e. the fluid's flow rate. Air-contacting skin and lung cancers account for approximately 60% of all cancers in part because out-diffusion of NO from nascent tumors to air increases the likelihood of their survival. Out-diffusion of NO also explains their initially 2-D spreading at the air interface. Blood is an NO sink because its proteins are rapidly S-nitrosated; depletion of NO by the blood explains the dormancy of tumors until their vascularization and their virulence after vascularization. Erythrocytes store NO(2)- and their carbonic anhydrase converts it to NO and NO(3)(-). Thus, NaNO(2), a common additive in cured meats, may reduce NO out-diffusion by raising the blood NO concentration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heller
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004435:Eating; D004563:Electrochemistry; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000188:drug therapy*; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism*; D012977:Sodium Nitrite / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D009569:Nitric Oxide; D012977:Sodium Nitrite