There is a situation where patients treated for small-cell lung cancer with chemotherapy and radiotherapy - even when these are effective - experience a recurrence of the cancer relatively quickly. To make matters worse, it also sometimes happens that after the above-mentioned forms of therapy, the tumour becomes insensitive to either chemo- or radiotherapy.

Until now, it was not known why small-cell lung cancer cells become resistant to oncological treatment. New light has been shed on this subject by the work of Viennese scientists. The research was made possible by taking blood samples from patients suffering from this cancer and subsequently culturing the resulting special cell lines.

Why does small-cell lung cancer so often become resistant to treatment?

Specialists in Vienna observed that the cancer cells of the lung tumour in question can form specific aggregates. The formation of such structures can significantly limit the access of anti-cancer drugs to individual cells. It turned out that these aggregates can reach considerable dimensions - up to 2 mm in size - but, even worse, their existence can increase the resistance of tumour structures to oncological treatment by up to eight times. This would be due not only to poorer drug delivery to tumour structures, but also to the fact that the cells in these aggregates are characterised by significantly slower growth (and oncology drugs usually have the greatest effect on those cells that are dividing intensively).

Can the findings described be considered useful for the treatment of small-cell lung cancer? Probably yes. In fact, the authors of the study mentioned above are already planning further analyses with a view to discovering how to prevent the appearance of tumour cell aggregates, as well as by what means these structures could be eradicated and the tumour's sensitivity to standard and widely used treatment methods.