Research finds cancer drug susceptibility gene

Researchers have identified a cancer-prevention gene that influences the success of drug treatment for childhood cancer.

Scientists from the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research (CCIA), with collaborators in the USA, described a new role for p53 in childhood cancer in a study published in the November issue of Cancer Research.

The research showed that by inactivating p53 in neuroblastoma cells, the most common childhood cancer, the cancer cells became resistant to a number of chemotherapy drugs.

“Our results provide definitive evidence of a role for p53 as a gene which dictates drug sensitivity in neuroblastoma,” said Dr Xue of CCIA’s Molecular Diagnostics Program.

“These results highlight the importance of p53 status as an indicator of a patient’s treatment response in neuroblastoma.”

However, Xue said that further research is needed before the definitive role of p53 is understood.

“Further research has found that p53 does not have one defined function in cancer susceptibility to treatment,” said Xue.

“In some cancer cell types it does not act as a drug sensitivity gene. It is therefore important to assess the clinical effect of p53 mutations in different cancers in a tissue context.”