Chemo Alters Body's Darwinian Battleground
A study published in Nature Genetics reveals that cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy can inadvertently promote the growth of healthy cells that carry cancer-related mutations. Researchers suggest that sequencing normal tissue could help clinicians better understand and manage the side effects of these treatments.
Why it matters
Understanding how treatments affect healthy tissue evolution is crucial for improving cancer therapy outcomes and minimizing long-term side effects for patients.
Cancer treatments, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, give a growth advantage to cells with particular genetic changes in healthy tissue, new research finds.
Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, University of Cambridge, University College London and their collaborators used DNA sequencing to map the mutations in normal oesophagus tissue from oesophageal cancer patients who had received either chemotherapy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, or no treatment before surgery.
The results, published today (11 September) in Nature Genetics, show that different cancer treatments changed the landscape of mutations in normal tissue. In particular, combined treatment of chemotherapy and radiotherapy led to significantly more normal cells with cancer-related mutations in these patients.
The team suggests that sequencing normal tissue from cancer patients receiving treatment could show how our genes regulate our tissue's response to drugs, including side effects.
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