Hibernating Cancer Cells
Written by Chloe Chou
Edited by Vicky Diep
May 2, 2021
Edited by Vicky Diep
May 2, 2021
Cancer cells can “hibernate like bears” to evade the harshness of chemotherapy? This may seem like a nightmare for a disease that already takes far too many lives every year, especially now that researchers at the University of Toronto and the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre have discovered that all cancer cells have this ability to hibernate.
Why do cancer cells choose to hibernate? This can be explained by how cancer cells grow and how most forms of chemotherapy target cancer cells. Cancer cells are essentially regular cells that have been mutated in some way to grow at a much faster rate than normal cells, forming the cancer tumors that are often telltale signs of their existence. Most cancer treatments are tailored to attack cells that grow rapidly, which include cancer cells in addition to other rapidly dividing cells in the human body like hair and nail cells. This is why one of the most common side effects of cancer treatment is hair loss. Cancer cells choose to hibernate and become slow-growing to avoid the harshness of chemotherapy, much like how animals become slow and sluggish during hibernation to avoid the harsh winter. Now that these cancer cells have become lethargic and slow-growing, chemotherapy drugs that are designed to target fast-growing cancer cells can no longer find their true target. This greatly increases the drug resistance of cancer cells.
Researchers have, however, begun experimenting with ways to prevent cancer cells from waking up from hibernation: by interfering with the mechanism that they use to survive during hibernation. To enter into this state of hibernation, cancer cells must resort to autophagy or “self devourment” where they destroy their own cells and proteins to use as a food source when there is a lack of nutrients. Researchers inhibited the genes that allow cancer cells to perform autophagy before treating them with chemotherapy. The end result was that the cancer cells were destroyed (University).
Researchers believe that this simple mechanism is one of the keys to overcoming cancer cells’ drug resistance, and new treatments should target this autophagy mechanism before cancer cells develop new genetic mutations that will once again leave the scientific community searching for new forms of treatment in our constant battle with cancer.
Image Source: “Genetic exchange between chromosomes can cause cells to become cancerous, like these cells from metastasized Ewing's sarcoma” by Lance Liotta Laboratory licensed under CC BY 2.5