Sunday, January 29, 2012

'Panic button' could help cancer defy drugs

Shuffling their genomes to survive (Image: Custom Medical Stock Photo/Getty) 

"Stressed yeast cells frantically reshuffle their chromosomes in a desperate last bid to find a combination that survives. This "panic" response enables them to rapidly evolve resistance to drugs. The discovery might also apply to cancer, because cancer cells often have abnormal numbers and arrangements of chromosomes. Understanding one of the mechanisms by which cancers develop resistance to drugs could in turn open up new ways to combat cancer."
By Andy Coghlan / continue reading
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