Chemotherapy treatment may make cancer worse

  

August 06, 2012 (WLS) -- A popular treatment for cancer may make the disease worse in some patients.

A surprising new study finds chemotherapy can cause healthy cells to secrete a protein that seems to boost cancer cell survival.

Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center made the discovery which may explain why a significant amount of people become resistant to chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy kills both cancerous and healthy cells.

When some of those those healthy cells respond to the treatment they also make a protein which appears to help cancer resist treatment.

Researchers are hoping their finding in the journal Nature Medicine will help find a way to stop this response and improve the effectiveness of therapy.

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