New discovery about how cancer cells resist conventional chemotherapy

The research of the above group of scientists shows that cancer cells can activate a rescue mechanism that creates forces to stabilize the structure of essential cells, which are responsible for cell division and resist the effects of chemotherapy.

Professor Peter Gunning, lead author of the study and now at the University of New South Wales, said cancer cells use mechanical forces provided by their cell walls to overcome the effects of chemotherapy. Now that scientists know exactly how cancer cells avoid the killing effects of chemotherapy, they could improve cancer treatments.

During cell division or mitosis, microtubules inside cells help separate genetic material. Cancer cells divide more rapidly than normal cells, making them targets for chemotherapy drugs that disrupt these microtubules.

Professor Gunning said that high doses of chemotherapy would cause cell death due to the chaos in chromosome separation. However, at lower doses, cancer cells could trigger a rescue mechanism. This involved cancer cells recognising broken microtubules and triggering the reattachment of these fragments, ensuring the cancer cells could multiply.

The next step is for researchers to focus on developing drugs that can be combined with chemotherapy to destroy the drug-resistant mechanisms of cancer cells. Before being tested on patients, these drugs will undergo animal screening and preclinical studies.

By attacking the force-generating machinery produced by cancer cells, the team hopes to make cancer treatments more effective, said Professor Gunning.