LSUHSC research finds protein that protects cancer cells from chemo and radiation therapy
Research led by Daitoku Sakamuro, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans and the LSUHSC Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center, has identified a protein that enables the activation of a DNA-repair enzyme that protects cancer cells from catastrophic damage caused by chemo and radiation therapy. This protein, called c-MYC oncoprotein, can initiate and promote almost all human cancers and discovering the role it plays in cancer treatment resistance may lead to advances that save lives. The work is published in the March 29, 2011 issue of Science Signaling, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Although scientists have known that cancer cells can acquire resistance to DNA-damaging therapeutic agents, the genetic mechanisms through which this occurs have remained unclear until now.