A second idea is to chase each cancer down an evolutionary valley and into a dead end from which it cannot escape. We accept that localized traffic jams can be bypassed but, each time that happens, we identify the back route and then target that – and we keep doing it until there are no short cuts left. In practice, this would mean treating a patient with one targeted drug and, if their cancer returns with newly-developed resistance to this treatment, we then identify how that resistance evolved and hit the tumour with another drug directed at that resistance mechanism. The process is repeated until the cancer runs out of evolutionary headroom.
Both of these strategies will need a significant re-tooling and refocusing of our cancer research enterprise. We need to pay more attention to the inherent robustness and evolutionary ability of the targets against which our drugs are directed, and see if we can identify the essential engines of tumour maintenance.
- More Here
Both of these strategies will need a significant re-tooling and refocusing of our cancer research enterprise. We need to pay more attention to the inherent robustness and evolutionary ability of the targets against which our drugs are directed, and see if we can identify the essential engines of tumour maintenance.
- More Here
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