Part 3/10:
The Missing Piece: Mutations Define Effectiveness
Despite these promising findings, a crucial caveat emerged. When researchers tested the same approach on similar types of cancer cells without specific genetic mutations, namely the KRAS mutation, the results differed dramatically. Only the KRAS-mutant cancer cells showed susceptibility to this treatment, while others remained unaffected.
This discovery highlights that the therapy's success hinges on a particular genetic mutation — the KRAS mutation, which is commonly associated with aggressive cancers such as colorectal, pancreatic, lung, and some ovarian cancers.