Researchers from Masaryk University uncover new evidence of how some cancer cells survive aggressive chemotherapy

Researchers from Masaryk University in Brno recently recorded unique evidence of how some cancer cells cooperate to create a new cell highly resistant to chemotherapy. Until now, it was thought that when one cell entered the other, it was cannibalised. Researchers in Brno found in many cases the opposite was true; the cell which entered was the more active. Above all, the new joined cell combined qualities of both, while growing more resistant to treatment. It could be one reason why cancer thought to be defeated in a patient latently survives to reappear later on.

Jaromír Gumulec, photo: archive of Masaryk University in Brno

I asked Doctor Jaromír Gumulec, one of the researchers involved in the project, to tell me more about the team’s findings.

“It is well known that cancer cells became resistant to chemotherapy but what is a new finding and what we learned is that one of the ways that cells and tumours became resistant to chemotherapy is that can cooperate together. Together, they can create structures – which we previously did not know – which all contribute to this increase to the development of this resistance.”

My understanding that the new structure, a cancerous cell can ultimately make use of a kind of camouflage if I can use that word…

“Camouflage is very much the ideal word to describe this condition. Certainly cancer cells try to remain invisible to the immune system, avoiding detection and being destroyed. When cancer cells join the way we observed, the ‘joined cell’ gathered properties which were not present in both cells before.

“One cell can create metastasis, and the other, for instance, can create blood vessels. Blood vessels are of course important for cancer because otherwise there would be no oxygen or nutrition. So when those two cells join together using the mechanism called entosis, these two properties can combine and a new cancer cell comes into existence which is much more resistant and can survive aggressive chemotherapy and can survive much longer than cells which were not joined.”

Cancer cells, photo: archive of Masaryk University in Brno

Will the revelation of how these cells work together go towards developing better methods of treating the cancer, a better means of tackling this kind of super cell?

“Indeed, although the news may not look good initially, it could serve as the baseline for the development of new drugs which would target this particular mechanism and which could lead to better possibilities in cancer treatment, indeed.”