The effect of intrinsic and acquired resistances on chemotherapy effectiveness

Although chemotherapy is one of the most common treatments for cancer, it can be only partially successful. Drug resistance is the main cause of the failure of chemotherapy. In this work, we present a mathematical model to study the impact of both intrinsic (preexisting) and acquired (induced by the drugs) resistances on chemotherapy effectiveness. Our simulations show that intrinsic resistance could be as dangerous as acquired resistance. In particular, our simulations suggest that tumors composed by even a small fraction of intrinsically resistant cells may lead to an unsuccessful therapy very quickly. Our results emphasize the importance of monitoring both intrinsic and acquired resistances during treatment in order to succeed and the importance of doing more experimental and genetic research in order to develop a pretreatment clinical test to avoid intrinsic resistance.