Developing a new method to detect cancer cells that have survived anti-cancer therapy

The best way to treat cancer is to kill it. Indeed, many treatments do kill cancer cells but,
unfortunately, some cancer cells often survive treatment and regrow and become treatment
resistant. Cancer therapies kill cancer cells by a process called apoptosis; this is a form of cell
suicide whereby the cell actively kills itself. Our recent data shows that cells can trigger apoptosis
but survive. Based on our results, we propose that cancer cells surviving this process are more
resistant to therapy and grow quicker, in essence, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. This
project will develop a tool to detect cancer cells survivng apoptosis, in order to investigate whether
our idea is true. If so, this will lead develop to new ways to kill cancer cells, and by extension treat
cancer, more effectively.