ABOVE: Artist’s rendering of colon cancer cells
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In response to antibiotic treatment, bacteria improve their odds of survival by increasing the rate of mutations in their genomes, giving them more chances to become resistant. The tactic isn’t limited to microbes. In a study published in Science today (November 7), researchers have shown that colorectal cancer cells likewise increase their mutation rate to avoid death by a targeted therapy.
Although the finding contrasts with the widely held notion that therapy favors the small number of cells with pre-existing mutations that confer resistance, the authors say that the two strategies likely coexist.
“This study provides compelling new data that challenge the way we think about how targeted treatment elicits resistance responses in colorectal cancers,” Elaine Mardis, a cancer researcher at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Ohio State University who did not participate in the work, writes in an email to ...
