Cannibalistic cancer eats itself to survive treatment

Stubborn cancer cells play a cunning trick when faced with treatments designed to kill them—they eat themselves to survive. But Lisa Schafranek has found a way to starve the cancer cells, making them more susceptible to cancer therapy.

Lisa Schafranek. Credit: OK-White Lane
Lisa Schafranek. Credit: OK-White Lane

Lisa and her team at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute have used a clinically available drug, originally developed as an antibiotic to treat lung infections, to stop leukaemia cells from eating themselves to survive cancer therapy.

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