Platinum Chemotherapy May Improve Resistance to Ovarian Cancer Cell Treatment

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute have discovered how platinum chemotherapy can improve the resistance to treatment of ovarian cancer cells by progressively changing the intrinsic adhesion signaling of cancer cells and the surrounding microenvironment of cells. lules.

Platinum chemotherapy is a standard treatment in ovarian cancers, but resistance to treatment usually develops. The biochemical and mechanical indications derived from the extracellular matrix (ECM) in the tumor microenvironment they are known to contribute to the ability of cancer cells to metastasize and resist treatment. However, the way dynamic communication between cancer cells and ECM is affected by disease progression and chemotherapy, or how it influences their progression, has remained elusive.

A new study led by Kaisa Lehti, a researcher in the Department of Microbiology, Tumors and Cell Biology at KI, and published in Communications on Nature, shows that the ECM microenvironment is modulated in metastasis and after chemotherapy. Changes in ECM proteins variably altered the response to cell death of tumor cells.

“Particularly in the most aggressive solid tumor tissues, cancer cells are surrounded by an important fibrotic network of proteins such as collagen, known as extracellular matrix (ECM) and is also defined as the matrisome when considered with several associated factors, including cytokines and chemokines. The ECM / matrisome is produced mainly by stromal cells, but detected and remodeled collectively by the cancer cells and fibrotic tumor stroma cells. In tumor cells, specific ECM signaling in a rigid microenvironment critically increased their resistance to apoptosis-induced, apoptosis-induced DNA damage, ”explains Kaisa Lehti.