An international team of researchers from Trinity College Dublin and the Moffitt Cancer Center in the US has demonstrated a landmark “evolutionary double-bind” strategy to overcome treatment resistance in prostate cancer. 

Many patients with metastatic cancers receive therapy that is initially highly effective, often resulting in complete remission. However, cancer cells have a remarkable capacity to evolve resistance to currently available therapies. As a result, resistant cells eventually proliferate causing the tumour to recur, leading to treatment failure and ultimately patient death. 

In other words, increasingly the proximate cause of death in cancer patients is evolution, which sees the cancer cells adapt and overcome even highly effective treatments.

The new work found that when cancer cells successfully evolve resistance to DNA damaging treatments, they expose a critical weakness that makes them highly vulnerable to immunotherapy. This represents an “evolutionary double-bind” in which the cancer cell adaptation to one therapy makes them more vulnerable to another therapy and vice-versa.

U.S. counties located closer to operational nuclear power plants (NPPs) have higher rates of cancer mortality than those located farther away, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The study is the first of the 21st century to analyze proximity to NPPs and cancer mortality across all NPPs and every U.S. county. The researchers emphasized that the findings are not enough to establish causality but do highlight the need for further research into nuclear power’s health impacts.

A new study led by City St George's, University of London provides hope that smarter timing of cancer treatments could improve cure rates.

The standard clinical approach is to wait and see if a tumour regrows before trying a different treatment. By this point, some tumour cells are likely to have gained mutations making them resistant to the second treatment, which then also fails.

Evolutionary theory suggests an alternative strategy. Instead of waiting, it might be better to switch to a second treatment while the tumour is still responding to the first one.