Can Chemotherapy Worsen Lymphoma?
How do cancer cells in ‘extended sleep’ revive and produce more cancer cells?
The results of the current study under review demonstrated that the process of chemotherapy-induced senescence “not only helps cancer cells avoid death, but it actually turns them into cancer stem cells.”
Their ‘breakthrough findings’ were presented in the scientific journal, Nature, by Professor Dr. Clemens A. Schmitt. Dr. Schmitt is a member of the Department of Hematology, Oncology, and Tumor Immunology at Charité-University Medical Center and the Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine, both in Berlin, Germany.
In the study, the scientists treated lymphoma tumor cells in mice with drugs developed to induce senescence.
As expected, the cells stopped dividing.
But, the treated cancer cells were found to also resemble cancer stem cells, identified genetically.
The identified genes were those required for the cells to function (stemness).
The researchers were faced with a quandary: If the cells are in senescence, does it matter that they attain stemness?
