Scientists at The Wistar Institute have identified a mechanism behind the chemotherapy resistance that makes ovarian cancer so lethal. The researchers showed that chemotherapy triggers an inflammatory cascade that recruits immune cells into the tumor microenvironment, which ultimately function to protect the cancer from subsequent chemotherapy.
When activated in ovarian cancer cells, the receptor for the body’s primary stress hormone alters the tumor environment in ways that blunt immune response, according to research led by UT Southwestern Medical Center.
