A small number of cancer cells with the ability to change their identities and behaviors appear to be a key driver of cancer progression and its ability to evolve resistance to treatment.
Targeting this subpopulation of “highly plastic” cells may make current treatments more effective and could potentially help prevent aggressive tumors from forming, according to a new study by researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). Their findings were published January 21 in Nature.
“Scientists have suspected that it’s really a small subset of cells that drives cancer’s ability to adapt and resist treatment, but efforts to study and target these cells directly have been limited,” says study senior author Tuomas Tammela, MD, PhD, an investigator at MSK’s Sloan Kettering…