Researchers have discovered a way to tag cancer cells of tumors that are difficult to target because they lack suitable receptors. They suggest that their approach, which they tested in mice, could lead to new targeted therapies for cancers that do not respond to those currently available, such as triple-negative breast cancer.

Share on Pinterest Some cancers do not respond to current targeted therapies because their tumor cells do not have suitable surface receptors.

The team – including scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and research centers in China – reports the findings in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.

The method uses small-molecule sugars to produce unique, artificial cell surface receptors on cancer cells.

Study leader Jianjun Cheng, a professor in materials science and engineering at Illinois, explains that there is a lack of targeted therapies for certain cancers because they do not have any of the receptors that available treatments normally target.

One such cancer is triple-negative breast cancer – an aggressive cancer with a low survival rate.

Prof. Cheng says that this got them thinking that perhaps they could create an artificial receptor.

Targeted cancer therapies are treatments that target specific molecules involved in the growth, progression, and spread of cancer. They belong to a relatively new field called precision medicine.

There are several differences between targeted cancer therapy and conventional chemotherapy, the main one being that most chemotherapy treatments target all rapidly dividing cells, including healthy ones.