Heavy metals may help lung cancer resist chemotherapy

The study, carried out with Pleco Therapeutics (Netherlands), found that several metals can work together inside tumour cells, making cancer treatment far less effective.

Metals working together

Scientists tested low levels of metals commonly associated with lung cancer, including copper, zinc, manganese, chromium, cadmium and lead.

While individual metals had only limited effects, combining them caused lung cancer cells to become strongly resistant to chemotherapy drugs.

The research is the first to show that multiple metals can cooperate in this way to drive treatment resistance.

Reversing treatment resistance

The team also discovered that this drug resistance was not permanent.

Researchers tested a compound called MiADMSA, a drug originally developed to treat metal poisoning.

The compound can enter cells and remove several different metals at the same time.

When MiADMSA was used alongside chemotherapy, cancer cells once again became sensitive to treatment.

The same effect was also seen in mice, where the treatment reduced tumour growth linked to metal exposure.

The researchers believe the metals increase harmful stress signals inside cancer cells, helping them survive chemotherapy.

Future treatments

The researchers say the findings could lead to new combination therapies where chemotherapy is paired with metal-removal treatments to improve patient outcomes and potentially reduce side effects.

The team will now investigate exactly how metals help tumours survive treatment and whether the approach could work in other cancers where metal build-up has also been reported.

Find out more

• This study was led by Dr Patricia Muller and Dr William Brittain.
• Read the full paper published in Cell, Death and Discovery.
• Interested in studying at Durham? Explore our undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

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