Targeting Colon Cancer Plasticity May Prevent Drug Resistance

Scientists in Germany have discovered that colon cancers contain two different cell types, characterized bymitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and NOTCH signaling, respectively, which can regenerate each other when one type is killed by a targeted therapeutic. The studies, headed by David Horst, Ph.D., at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, suggest that this cell plasticity allows the tumor to sidestep drugs directed against one or other of the two signaling pathways, and that