Researchers from the University of New South Wales and the University of Technology Sydney have discovered how cancer cells manage to evade common cancer therapies, Xinhua news agency reported, citing Agerpres.

According to a new study recently published in the journal Current Biology, cancer cells can activate a force-generating rescue mechanism to stabilize an important cellular structure responsible for cell division and thus resist the effects of chemotherapy.

Peter Gunning, lead author of the study and a professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, said cancer cells use the mechanical strength of the cell cortex to overcome the effects of conventional chemotherapy.

“Now that we understand this exact pathway that cancer cells use to avoid the toxic effects of chemotherapy, it opens the way to improved cancer treatments,” he added.

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

According to Professor Peter Gunning, high doses of this chemotherapy effectively cause cell death by wreaking havoc on chromosome division, but at lower doses cancer cells can trigger a rescue mechanism.

This mechanism consists in the fact that cancer cells recognize broken microtubules and activate the process of reconnecting these fragments, ensuring the reproduction of cancer cells.

In the next step, researchers will focus on developing drugs that work in conjunction with current chemotherapy to overcome the cancer cells’ resistance mechanism.

Before being tested on humans, future drugs will be refined in animal models and through preclinical studies.

“By attacking the force-generating mechanisms created by cancer cells, we expect to be able to enable cancer therapies to do their job much more effectively,” said Peter Gunning.

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