Certain mutated cells keep trying to replicate their DNA -- with disastrous results -- even after medications rob them of the raw materials to do so, according to new research from USC. New imaging techniques allowed scientists to see for the first time that while chemotherapy drugs shut down the DNA replication process of most cancer cells, so-called “checkpoint mutants” just keep chugging along, unwinding the DNA and creating damaged DNA strands that can result in the kind of abnormalities seen in cancer cells.
