Just as the body can become resistant to antibiotics,
certain methods of killing cancer tumors can end up creating resistant tumor
cells. But a University of Central Florida professor has found a protein
present in several types of cancer, including breast and ovarian cancer, which
could be helpful in preventing tumors from coming back.
The protein, KLF8, appears to protect tumor cells from drugs
aimed at killing them and even aid the tumor cells’ ability to regenerate.
“All cells have a DNA-repair mechanism,” explained Jihe
Zhao, a medical doctor and researcher who in the past few months has published
several articles related to the protein in the Journal of Biological Chemistry
and Oncogene, among others. “That’s why we survive constant DNA damage threats.
But KLF8 is overexpressed in specific cancers, such as breast cancer and
ovarian cancer. The thought is that if we can stop it from switching on, we may
be able to stop the tumors from coming back as part of therapy. We still need
to do a lot more research, but it is plausible.