KATHMANDU, Jan 5: Cancer cells have an “escape tactic” that may explain how they survive chemotherapy, a study suggests, said The Times, London I its Monday edition.
Researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong found that cancer cells can recover from chemicals that provoke “cell suicide” in healthy cells and go on to reproduce themselves, the newspaper´s online edition said. [break] They suggest that this process may contribute to the return of cancer during chemotherapy.
Human cancer cells were treated in the laboratory with three chemicals which start apoptosis, known as “cell suicide”, whereby cells fragment. Normal cells will die once they have broken down beyond a certain point. The researchers found, however, that cancer cells recovered once the chemicals were removed. They were killed irreversibly only once their nucleii began to disintegrate, which happens at the very end of cell death.
Professor Ming-Chiu Fung, one of the researchers, said: “This research suggests the existence of an escape tactic which cancer cells might call upon to survive chemotherapy treatment.”
The findings are published today in the British Journal of Cancer, which is owned by the charity Cancer Research UK.