All cells within the same cancer are not the same. They all have genetic errors that turn them into tumour cells, but these errors are not identical. In each cancer, there are populations of cells with different mutations, and it is important to know each population, because one of them can become more dominant and cause the cancer to resist treatment.
However, research seeking to understand the properties of each group of cells in a tumor has progressed very slowly so far. A study by the H12O-CNIO Haematological Tumours Clinical Research Unit now demonstrates in multiple myeloma cells that a technique based on evolutionary theory is useful to reveal how each cell population responds to different drugs, making the tumour resistant. Evolutionary competition within the tumor A cancer can be seen as an ecosystem in which slightly different cells engage in an evolutionary battle in which the strongest, or the most capable of resisting treatments, will survive.
The technique used by CNIO researcher Larissa Haertle, called Clonal competition assays, shows in real time how the different tumour populations manage to adapt to each treatment, until a certain population becomes dominant over the others. It is a very visual tool: the different cell populations are stained different colours, cultivated together and subjected to the various treatments available. After a while, the colour of the population whose genetic profile has allowed it to resist the drug used can be seen to dominate .
