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Cancer

Exploiting collateral damage

Nature volume 488, pages 284–285 (2012)Cite this article

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Some mutations in tumour cells play no part in causing cancer, but they generate cellular weak spots that may allow tumour cells to be selectively killed by drugs. See Article p.337

The central challenge in anticancer therapy is to kill tumour cells without harming other cells of the body. A defining property of cancer cells is that they carry genetic changes that distinguish them from normal cells and that should, at least in theory, allow them to be specifically killed by drugs that target them. But in practice this represents a formidable problem. On page 337 of this issue, Muller et al.1 outline a potential strategy that exploits 'passenger' mutations. These mutations can remove genetic redundancies in cancer cells, making them vulnerable and so facilitating their destruction.

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Figure 1: Therapy in the passenger seat.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ben Lehner and Solip Park are in the EMBL-CRG Systems Biology Unit, Centre for Genomic Regulation, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain.,

    Ben Lehner & Solip Park

  2. B. L. is also at the Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona.,

    Ben Lehner

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  1. Ben Lehner
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  2. Solip Park
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Correspondence to Ben Lehner.

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Lehner, B., Park, S. Exploiting collateral damage. Nature 488, 284–285 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/488284a

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