Chemotherapy can cause resistance of cancer cells to medicines
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Chemotherapy, used in the treatment of cancer, can lead to greater resistance of cancer cells to medicines. According to scientists in an article published in the journal Nature Medicine, it was noted that treatment with time becomes ineffective, especially in patients with repeated disease.
Researchers explain this by the fact that during chemotherapy in healthy cells surrounding the tumor, the protein that the cancer cells use for their own defense begins to be produced. According to an expert from the Cancer Research UK research center Fran Bolquil, the scientists intend to study this side effect in order to subsequently block the protective mechanism of the tumor. "It turned out that healthy cells surrounding the tumor can help cancer cells by supplying them with the necessary materials," says Bowlwill.
Thus, the use of chemotherapy can be revised if this double effect is confirmed. Studies have already confirmed that in approximately 90% of patients during treatment, the affected cells developed resistance to drugs.
Attention to healthy tissues
Usually, during treatment, breaks are taken in taking medication so that the body can recover. As it turned out, this is used and cancer cells, developing the necessary resistance to drugs.
According to researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in the American Seattle, chemotherapy damages the DNA of cells in the surrounding tissues, and they begin to produce 30 times more protein WNT16B, which later helps cancer to resist drugs. And if earlier scientists took into account only the cancer cells themselves, it is now clear that it is necessary to take into account the tissues surrounding the tumor.
The head of the American research group Peter Nelson emphasizes that it was previously known that proteins help the cancerous tumor to develop. But only now it became clear that in this way the tumor is protected from treatment. "Our research shows that the tumor environment can also influence the decision, how the treatment should be built," the scientist emphasizes. Fran Bolkwin of Cancer Research UK believes that you now need to learn how to properly stimulate healthy cells so that they do not help the disease, but destroy it.
Oncological diseases can affect any part of the human body. A characteristic feature of this group of diseases is the rapid formation of abnormal cells that grow beyond their normal boundaries and are able to penetrate into the surrounding tissue and form metastases, spreading to other organs.
And if healthy cells die after a certain number of divisions, then the cancer cell continues to divide an infinite number of times.
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