The saying goes that if it doesn’t kill yu, it makes you stronger. Well apparently that goes for cancer too, according to a new study from Duke University. Published in Nature Reviews Cancer

It is generally known that cancer adapt body functions and chemistry to survive and grow.. According to researchers, as solid tumors adapt the body’s machinery to bring themselves more oxygen, chemotherapy and radiation may actually make these tumors stronger.

Unless these treatments kill well enough, they can make the tumor healthier says Mark W. Dewhirst, D.V.M., Ph.D., professor of radiation oncology at Duke University Medical Center. It’s the old survival of the fittest in quicktime.

While Radiation and chemotherapy can be very effective in killing most solid tumor cells, and just about everything else they touch, in the cells that survive the therapies drive an increase in a regulatory factor called HIF1 (hypoxia-inducible factor 1).

HIF1 is used by the nasty tumor cells to get oxygen by increasing blood vessel growth into the tumor. Solid tumors generally have low supplies of oxygen, says Dewhirst, and HIF1 helps them get the oxygen they need.

In the study, researchers see the possibility of better treatment in that blocking HIF1 could provide a mechanism for killing solid-tumor cells, particularly cells that are proving resistant to radiation or chemotherapy treatments.

Source
Dewhirst, Nature Reviews Cancer, June 2008; vol 8: pp 425-438.
Duke University