Chemo ‘can fuel tumour growth’

Published on 06/08/2012 00:00

Chemotherapy can backfire by encouraging healthy cells to fuel treatment-resistant cancer and growth, research has shown.

The surprise discovery suggests many forms of cancer treatment can actually make the disease tougher to tackle.

Almost all solid tumour cancers, such as those affecting the breast, prostate, lung and bowel, ultimately stop responding to chemotherapy. Scientists now believe one reason could be the effect it has on healthy connective tissue cells called fibroblasts.

DNA-damaging cancer drugs cause fibroblasts to pump out growth molecules into tumour proteins, the study by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle found.