When skin cancer cells resist drug treatment
One of cancer’s most frightening characteristics is its ability to return after treatment. In the case of many forms of cancer, including the skin cancer known as melanoma, tailored drugs can eradicate cancer cells in the lab, but often produce only partial, temporary responses in patients. Thus the burning question in the field of cancer research remains: How does cancer evade drug treatment? New research by a team from the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, and Harvard affiliates Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) suggests that some of the answers to this question do not lie in cancer cells themselves. To find the answers, scientists are looking beyond tumor cells, studying the interplay between cancer cells and their healthy counterparts. The research team has found that normal cells that reside within the tumor, part of the tumor microenvironment, may supply factors that help cancer cells grow and...