image: Standard chemotherapeutic approaches rely on maximum tolerated doses (MTD) of chemotherapy, invariably selecting for the drug-resistant population by killing off not only drug-sensitive cancer cells but also healthy blood vessels and stromal cells, including native immune responders. The eco-evolutionary model proposed by Enriquez-Navas et al. is aimed at controlling tumor growth by maintaining an equilibrium between sensitive and resistant populations by means of low-dose frequent chemotherapy. The work demonstrates, in two different mouse xenograft models of breast carcinoma, that this approach can be more effective than the standard MTD approach in preventing disease progression and providing sustained control. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the Feb. 24, 2016, issue of Science Translational Medicine, published by AAAS. The paper, by G.L. Klement at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Mass., and colleagues was titled, "Eco-evolution of cancer resistance." view more
Credit: Klement et al., <i>Science Translational Medicine</i> (2016)