Man in lab in front of microscope

Cancer Repair Mechanism Could Be Potential Drug Target

While cancer therapies targeting specific genes or disease pathways have extended lives, they can also lead to highly resistant tumors when small reservoirs of cancer cells survive treatment, grow, and spread.

Searching for ways to extend the survival benefit of targeted therapies, a team led by researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute identified a potential new tactic to disrupt the repair mechanism that cancer cells use after treatment, blunting their ability to regenerate. The approach could present a new treatment strategy.

The team’s findings are reported March 30 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Read the press release.