Identifying size of cancer cells is key to customised care, study finds

CANCER patients could received customised treatments in future, based on whether their diseased cells shrink or swell when exposed to drugs.

Mutant cells can change their size in order to evade treatment, scientists have discovered, and that means existing treatments may be put to better use while new therapies could be deployed to slow down the disease by targeting proteins involved in regulating cell size.

In the first study of its kind, scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) combined biochemical profiling technologies with mathematics to show how genetic changes lead to differences in the size of cancer cells.

The researchers believe that smaller cancer cells could be more vulnerable to Dna-damaging agents, such as chemotherapy combined with targeted drugs, while larger cells might respond better to immunotherapy, which harnesses the power of a person’s own immune system.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, involved the examination of millions of skin cancer cells. However, the team believe their findings may also apply to other cancers.

Prof Kristian Helin, chief executive of the ICR, said: “This intriguing, fundamental study provides a correlation between genetic alterations in skin cancer cells and cell size.

“It opens the potential of using genetic alterations and cell size as biomarkers for how skin cancer will respond to treatments.

“It’s particularly exciting that cell size could also be an important biomarker for how other cancers, such as breast or head and neck cancers, respond to treatments.”

Prof Chris Bakal, the study leader, said: “We think of cancer as out of control and unpredictable, but we used image analysis and proteomics to show, for the first time, that certain genetic and protein changes lead to a controlled change in the size of cancer cells.

“Cancer cells can shrink or grow to enhance their ability to repair or contain DNA damage and that can make them resistant to certain treatments. We think our research has real diagnostic potential. By looking at cell size, pathologists could predict if a drug will work, or if the cells will be resistant.

“In the future, it might even be possible to use AI to help guide the pathologist, by making a rapid assessment about the size of cells and so the treatments that are most likely to work.”