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Treating Tough Tumors by exploiting their Iron ‘Addiction’

A microscopic image of KRAS-driven lung cancer (purple) in a mouse model. Researchers found that KRAS-driven tumors have higher levels of ferrous iron, which correlates with shorter survival times. Image by National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have successfully leveraged an FDA-approved drug to halt growth of tumors driven by mutations in the RAS gene, which are famously difficult to treat and account for about 1 in 4 cancer deaths.

Taking advantage of what they discovered to be the cancer cells’ appetite for a reactive form of iron, the researchers tweaked an anticancer drug to operate only in these iron-rich cells, leaving other cells to function normally...

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