SHANNON, CLARE, IRELAND, April 7, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — A precision cancer strategy that selectively kills tumour cells while leaving healthy tissue intact may be within reach for the majority of colorectal cancer patients, according to new research published in Genes & Disease. Their central insight was that APC-deficient cancer cells already operate under elevated oxidative stress, producing abnormally high ROS levels and sitting perilously close to a toxic threshold. ROS levels in APC-deficient cells surged past a breaking point, activating a cascade through the ROS/ASK1/JNK signalling pathway that ended in programmed cell death. Critically, CRC cells with intact APC showed no equivalent vulnerability — their ALDH2 continued managing oxidative stress effectively, and the treatment left them largely unaffected. In laboratory cell lines, APC-deficient tumour cells showed dramatically reduced proliferation, G0/G1 cell cycle arrest, and a sharp increase in apoptosis following treatment, with activation of pro-death proteins including BAX, cleaved caspase-3, and PARP1.

Source: The Herald April 07, 2026 23:43 UTC