Reversible Drug Resistance in Tumor Cells
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
Cancer patients sometimes respond more than once to treatment with the same agent even after resistance develops, supporting the notion that reversible, non-genetic mechanisms may be at work. A group at Massachusetts General Hospital recently identified such a mechanism in non-small-cell lung cancer and has started to trace its origins. They have linked this phenomenon to HDAC and IGF-1 receptor pathway - already known druggable targets - suggesting the potential for combination therapies that could extend the efficacy of some cancer drugs.