My Breakthrough
14 FEBRUARY 2008
Breakthrough scientists identify how cancer cells adapt using Darwin’s 'survival of the fittest' principle to resist treatment
Research funded by Breakthrough Breast Cancer and Cancer Research UK has identified a new mechanism that helps cancer cells survive by changing the way they respond to treatment. This knowledge gives us a better understanding of how some cancers may become resistant to treatment.
This new genetic mechanism, discovered by Professor Alan Ashworth and colleagues at the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research, can reverse cancer cells’ sensitivity to specific types of treatment, making them become resistant.
The research was based on cells containing a faulty version of the breast cancer gene, BRCA2. Women who inherit this fault are at a much higher risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. The same faults also means that the cancer cells are extremely sensitive to particular treatments such as PARP inhibitors and carboplatin, which target a weakness in cancer cells arising from this faulty gene.
Scientists took cells containing faulty BRCA2 genes and made them resistant to PARP inhibitors and carboplatin. They also studied tumour cells from women with a faulty BRCA2 gene, whose ovarian cancers had become resistant to carboplatin. In both instances, they uncovered a previously unknown genetic mechanism which had altered the faulty BRCA2 gene in the cancer cells, restoring its function to repair DNA damage and making the cancer resistant to treatment. They believe this particular mechanism of resistance might be a common way by which many other types of cancer become resistant to treatment.
Professor Alan Ashworth says;
“This genetic mechanism works like Charles Darwin’s natural selection theory – it allows cancer cells to survive by changing the way treatments affect them. By understanding this process we can alter patient treatment to counter the problem of resistance.”
In 2004, over a quarter of a million people were diagnosed with cancer in the UK and 1 in 4 deaths in the UK are caused by the disease . By understanding how cancer cells become resistant to treatment, targeted treatments can be created to re-sensitize cells to treatment, overcoming resistance and improving patients’ outlook.
This research is published online in the scientific journal, Nature and is featured in the journal’s weekly podcast.
Breakthrough scientists have also discovered how some breast cancers become resistant to hormone treatments like tamoxifen. This research was recently published in the February issue of the scientific journal, Cancer Cell.
Read more about this research
This new genetic mechanism, discovered by Professor Alan Ashworth and colleagues at the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research, can reverse cancer cells’ sensitivity to specific types of treatment, making them become resistant.
The research was based on cells containing a faulty version of the breast cancer gene, BRCA2. Women who inherit this fault are at a much higher risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. The same faults also means that the cancer cells are extremely sensitive to particular treatments such as PARP inhibitors and carboplatin, which target a weakness in cancer cells arising from this faulty gene.
Scientists took cells containing faulty BRCA2 genes and made them resistant to PARP inhibitors and carboplatin. They also studied tumour cells from women with a faulty BRCA2 gene, whose ovarian cancers had become resistant to carboplatin. In both instances, they uncovered a previously unknown genetic mechanism which had altered the faulty BRCA2 gene in the cancer cells, restoring its function to repair DNA damage and making the cancer resistant to treatment. They believe this particular mechanism of resistance might be a common way by which many other types of cancer become resistant to treatment.
Professor Alan Ashworth says;
“This genetic mechanism works like Charles Darwin’s natural selection theory – it allows cancer cells to survive by changing the way treatments affect them. By understanding this process we can alter patient treatment to counter the problem of resistance.”
In 2004, over a quarter of a million people were diagnosed with cancer in the UK and 1 in 4 deaths in the UK are caused by the disease . By understanding how cancer cells become resistant to treatment, targeted treatments can be created to re-sensitize cells to treatment, overcoming resistance and improving patients’ outlook.
This research is published online in the scientific journal, Nature and is featured in the journal’s weekly podcast.
Breakthrough scientists have also discovered how some breast cancers become resistant to hormone treatments like tamoxifen. This research was recently published in the February issue of the scientific journal, Cancer Cell.
Read more about this research
