A surprising new study finds chemotherapy can cause healthy cells to secrete a protein that seems to boost cancer cell survival.
Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center made the discovery which may explain why a significant amount of people become resistant to chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy kills both cancerous and healthy cells.
When some of those those healthy cells respond to the treatment they also make a protein which appears to help cancer resist treatment.
Researchers are hoping their finding in the journal Nature Medicine will help find a way to stop this response and improve the effectiveness of therapy.