Some cancer cells evade medicines by switching to a sleep-like state with the help of stress hormone receptors. Researchers have developed a method that allows them to degrade these receptors and therefore bypass the cells’ protective mechanism.
To this end, they built a switch that can be turned on and off with light in the vicinity of the tumour and that tags the receptors for disposal. This system is effective against lung cancer in the lab and could also have future applications in breast and prostate cancer.