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Study shows promise in fight against cancers resistant to chemotherapy
September 10, 2014
Resistance to chemotherapy is a major hurdle in the successful treatment of some cancers, and the reasons why these cancers are resistant to chemotherapy is still a mystery. But now, in a study published in the
Journal of Biological Chemistry
, Dr.
Ben Tsang
and doctoral student Bao Kong are helping to unravel this story. In their study, they showed that the chemotherapy drug cisplatin causes ovarian and cervical cancer cells to produce a protein that breaks apart their mitochondria (a cell's energy source) and leads to the cells’ death. Dr. Tsang showed that the tumour suppressor gene called p53 was required for cisplatin to be effective. In addition, they report that activating p53 in chemo-resistant cells increased cancer cell death regardless of the presence of cisplatin. The paper's findings offer potential new strategies for overcoming resistance to chemotherapy in ovarian and cervical cancer treatments.
Read the study here
.
About the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) is the research arm of The Ottawa Hospital and is an affiliated institute of the University of Ottawa, closely associated with the university’s Faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences. OHRI includes more than 1,700 scientists, clinical investigators, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and staff conducting research to improve the understanding, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human disease.
Media contact
Paddy Moore
Communications and Public Relations
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
613-737-8899 x73687
613-323-5680 (cell)