New York [US]: Laboratory experiments with cancer cells reveal two ways in which tumors evade drugs designed to starve and kill them, a new study shows. While chemotherapy successfully treats tumours and extends patients' lives, it is known that they do not work for everyone for long, since cancer cells rewire the mechanism by which they transform fuel into energy (metabolism) in order to avoid the treatments' effects. Many of these medications are so-called antimetabolics, which disrupt cell processes necessary for tumour growth and survival.
Led by researchers at NYU Langone Health and its Perlmutter Cancer Center, the new study shows how cancer cells survive in an environment made hostile by the persistent shortage of the energy from glucose (the chemical term for blood sugar) needed to drive tumor growth. This better understanding of how cancer cells evade the drugs' attempts to kill them in a low-glucose environment, the researchers say, could lead to the design of better or more effective combination therapies.
