Scientists will be able to predict the resistance of cancer to chemotherapy
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Scientists from the Hull Institute (England) under the leadership of Lynn Cockwell successfully identified a set of biomarkers that can help in advance to predict the resistance to chemotherapy in women with breast cancer. This will make it possible not to waste time on in vain treatment.
A whole family of proteins was detected, the content of which in samples of chemotherapy-resistant cancer cells is at least twice as high as the number of the same proteins in the samples taken from successfully treated women.
Resistance to chemotherapy is an urgent problem for women who are suffering from certain varieties of breast cancer. And it's not that the treatment simply does not work, it would be half the trouble. It's a waste of time and side effects of chemotherapy. In the meantime, doctors will finally understand that medications - one, two, three - can not help, there will be a lot of time, which after this may not be enough. And when to add to this side effects of chemotherapy drugs (and they are not limited to dizziness and stomach upset, primarily liver failure, kidneys and other organs) that are found regardless of the success of the therapy itself, it is possible to imagine how important it is predict the possibility of an adverse effect of chemotherapeutic treatment even before it begins.
In a note published in the Journal of Proteomics, researchers talk about identifying a large number of possible biomarkers associated with resistance to the most commonly used medications, including epirubicin and docetaxel (one of the taxol derivatives).
Scientists used at once 2 high-performance methods for screening samples of breast cancer tissues. One of the methods, which is based on testing with all possible antibodies, identified 38 proteins whose concentration in patients with resistance to chemotherapy was twice or more superior to that of patients who respond well to treatment. Another method, based on a more thorough procedure of mass spectrometric analysis, revealed 57 probable biomarkers, five of which belonged to the genus of proteins 14-3-3.
The detection of two methods of increased concentration of proteins from the genus 14-3-3 in patients with resistance to chemotherapy undoubtedly demonstrates the particular importance of these proteins in developing a clinical method capable of predicting chemoresistivity. (The appearance of 14-3-3 proteins appears where they were not expected at all, or they were associated with various unpleasant diseases for very large concentrations, for example, their presence in the cerebrospinal fluid indicates the onset of neurodegenerative processes.)
Now scientists want to know what the real role of these proteins in the observed chemoresistivity. This will be necessary for greater confidence in the reliability of the proposed method of prediction: since it is a matter of the life and death of a patient, and every oversight threatens it with death. In addition, they are going to conduct a similar study to develop a method capable of portending resistance to radiotherapy.
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