The Society of Cancer Management
  • Home
    • An After Life
    • News Archive
  • About
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Copyright Notice
  • Contact

. . . supporting research that improves cancer survival.

 
Please contact us if you would like to contribute a news item. We are keen to publish more articles from UK-based research and findings that relate to microbial infections during therapy.

Breaking bad: how shattered chromosomes make cancer cells drug-resistant

2/1/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
Scanning electron micrograph of the nucleus of a cancer cell, chromosomes are indicated by blue arrows and circular extra-chromosomal DNA are indicated by orange arrows. CREDIT Paul Mischel, UC San Diego
Researchers find that the phenomenon of chromothripsis results in rearranged genomes and extra-chromosomal DNA that helps mutated cells not only evade treatment, but become more aggressive.

Cancer is one of the world's greatest health afflictions because, unlike some diseases, it is a moving target, constantly evolving to evade and resist treatment.

In a paper published in Nature, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the UC San Diego branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, with colleagues in New York and the United Kingdom, describe how a phenomenon known as "chromothripsis" breaks up chromosomes, which then reassemble in ways that ultimately promote cancer cell growth.

Chromothripsis is a catastrophic mutational event in a cell's history that involves massive rearrangement of its genome, as opposed to a gradual acquisition of rearrangements and mutations over time. Genomic rearrangement is a key characteristic of many cancers, allowing mutated cells to grow or grow faster, unaffected by anti-cancer therapies.

"These rearrangements can occur in a single step," said first author Ofer Shoshani, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of the paper's co-senior author Don Cleveland, PhD, professor of medicine, neurosciences and cellular and molecular medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
​
"During chromothripsis, a chromosome in a cell is shattered into many pieces, hundreds in some cases, followed by reassembly in a shuffled order. Some pieces get lost while others persist as extra-chromosomal DNA (ecDNA). Some of these ecDNA elements promote cancer cell growth and form minute-sized chromosomes called 'double minutes.'"

Read More
0 Comments

    Cancer Therapy & Palliative Care News

    This feed features recent developments in cancer therapy and palliative care. Views in these articles do not necessarily represent those of the Cancer Management Society.

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

    Categories

    All
    General
    Presentation
    Research
    Review

    RSS Feed

Home

About

Contact Us

Terms & Conditions

Privacy Policy

Copyright Notice

RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
© The Society of Cancer Management 2017