New revolutionary research out of University of California, San Diego shows that cancer cells can communicate with each other. This might be how they adapt to resist chemotherapy treatment.
The research is spearheaded by Dr. Maurizio Zanetti, who said Wednesday chemotherapy is only effective in twenty to forty percent of cancer patients.
"Cancer cells send signals to neighboring cancer cells and they make them do what they want, essentially," said Dr. Zanetti. "By releasing the signal they make other cells learn how to cope with difficult environments.”
Similar to how one would warn someone of danger through a cell phone, Dr. Zanetti said the cells are able to resist better than if they were not signaled.
"Overtime, they will develop survival capability, which is exactly what you don’t want," he added.
Dr. Zanetti said forming new treatment options from his research is still in the distant future. He added new treatment options will have to involve newly developed drugs that use this information to tactically stop the communication between cells.
