Researchers reveal cancer cell defences

Researchers have discovered how cancer cells heal themselves during chemotherapy.

Cancer is responsible for one in six deaths, with only cardiovascular disease higher on the list of leading causes of death worldwide.

Researchers around the world seek weak points in cancer cells that could make them more vulnerable to both new and existing treatments.

Researchers from the University of New South Wales may have made an important discovery deep inside these overactive and diseased cells. For the first time, they have observed a special defence that cancer cells use to evade the effects of chemotherapy.

In brief, cancer results when cells lose control of their reproduction and begin to divide unnaturally and out of control, often after damage to cell DNA.

When our cells divide, tube-like protein structures known as microtubules cut the genetic material inside cells, so new daughter cells can form.

To stop cancer cells from dividing, then, researchers may try to attack the tiny tube-like arms using a specific type of chemotherapy, preventing the cell chromosomes from separating. Chemotherapy can stop the normal function of the tubes in cells by breaking them into multiple pieces.

However, researchers observed an evasive manoeuvre in the cancer cells. According to the researchers, when the small tube-like arms in cells break into smaller pieces, this activates a signal in the cancer cells that causes the tubes to reach out to the edge of the cells, pulling at it, so the pieces can be put back together again.

The researchers believe that this manoeuvre allows the tube-like proteins to stabilise then work up the necessary strength to grab and pull chromosomes into their respective daughter cells – re-enabling the cancer cells to continue their division.

The resistance of cancer to chemotherapy had already alerted scientists to the possibility of a special defence mechanism, but this is the first time that images of the cancer cells, the tube-like structures, and division in real time could reveal the mechanism in action. Researchers hope that the new discovery will improve cancer treatment by accounting for this resistance.