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WHY CAN CHEMO FAIL TO WORK?

Cancer cells may figure out how to resist chemotherapy.

There are several reasons this may happen. 

The cells that are not killed may mutate and change in response, repair the DNA damaged by the drug or develop a mechanism that renders it useless. 

Therefore, the drugs' success often relies on the failure of the cancer cell's repairing mechanisms. 

Cancer cells may produce hundreds of copies of a particular gene, known as gene amplification, triggering an overproduction of a protein which stops the effectiveness of treatment.

Cancer cells are sometimes able to push the drug out of itself, using a molecule called p-glycoprotein. 

Because chemotherapy is the first line of treatment, it is a major concern when it fails to work. 

Professor Workman chief executive of The Institute for Cancer Research, said: 'Cancer's ability to adapt, evolve and become drug resistant is the cause of the vast majority of deaths from the disease and the biggest challenge we face in overcoming it.'

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