Optimization Of Cancer Treatment Through Overcoming Drug Resistance

Drug Resistance has been reported for most current therapeutic agents against cancer cells, regardless of whether these are chemotherapeutic agents, target therapy or immunotherapy. Heterogeneity of tumor cells is considered an important factor for drug resistance. This heterogeneity is due to renewable small subpopulations of cells called stem-like cancer cells. It is highly possible that different generations of cells exist within one tumor, thus targeting them would result in alternative outcomes as some clones are sensitive and others are resistant to therapeutic agents. Further, tumor cells also have the capability to evolve over time; adding another challenge to treat cancer.