UK Scientists Uncover Clue to Cancer Drug Resistance
10 February 2008 - Scientists from the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at The Institute have discovered a new genetic mechanism which helps cancer cells survive by changing the way they respond to treatment. The research, jointly funded by Breakthrough Breast Cancer and Cancer Research UK, gives us a better understanding of how some cancers may become resistant to treatment.
The key reason why many treatments fail is that tumours become resistant to therapies. A recent Institute study, however, has gained a unique insight into how resistance to certain drugs occurs. The study identified a genetic mechanism that can reverse cancer cells’ sensitivity to specific types of treatment, making them become resistant.
Scientists took tumour cells containing faulty BRCA2 genes and made them resistant to PARP inhibitors and carboplatin therapies, as well as studying cells from women with faulty BRCA2 genes who displayed resistance to the same treatments. In both instances, a previously unknown genetic mechanism was discovered which alters the faulty BRCA2 gene in the cancer cells, restoring normal function and making the cancer resistant to treatment.
This new version of BRCA2 restored the ability of cancer cells to repair genetic damage caused by the anti-cancer drugs, allowing them to survive. Professor Alan Ashworth explained; “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.”
Professor Alan Ashworth leads the Gene Function Team in the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at The Institute.
