Study finds key factor in cancer treatment failure

A new study by Israeli researchers has discovered a major biological process that explains why some treatments for cancer and other serious diseases do not always work as expected, the University of Haifa said in a statement on Wednesday, reported Xinhua.

The study, published in Nature Communications, focused on a protein called Notch, which helps cells communicate with one another.

The researchers discovered that this protein not only receives signals from other cells, as previously believed, but also sends signals to neighbouring cells.

In some cases, these signals can trigger nearby cells to remove or "eat" living cells, a process linked to tissue changes and disease development, the researchers said, noting that this "unexpected" behaviour may help explain why treatments that target only internal processes inside cells sometimes fail to stop diseases such as cancer.

The researchers said that cell communication is more complex than once thought, and that ignoring these external signalling effects could be one reason some treatments show limited success.

They concluded that understanding the newly discovered pathway could lead to better and more effective treatment strategies.