A biochemical alteration that has long been viewed as an adverse aspect of tumor biology may turn out to be a deadly double-edged sword for the cancer cells themselves.
Scientists have successfully exploited the oxidative stress common in cancer cells to preferentially kill malignant cells. This approach has the therapeutic advantage of selectively targeting cancer cells while exhibiting minimal toxicity in normal cells.
The research is published in the September 2006 issue of the journal Cancer Cell, published by Cell Press.
Most cancer cells exhibit overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which is thought to provide favorable conditions for cancer cell growth, genetic instability, and survival. Dr. Peng Huang from the Department of Molecular Pathology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and colleagues hypothesized that increased ROS generation may also make cancer cells highly vulnerable to exogenous ROS-modulating agents that would not be toxic to normal cells with low ROS output.