The Facts

• Researchers from the UK and UK have found that treating the most aggressive cancers should focus on targeting extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA), which are rogue DNA fragments that help cancerous tumors flourish and become chemotherapy-resistant.

• They found ecDNA is present in over 17% of analyzed tumors, particularly in aggressive forms of breast, brain, and lung cancers, co-segregate during mitosis, allowing them to inherit multiple oncogenes, or cancer-prone ecDNA by daughter cells.

• Besides oncogenes, this rogue DNA, which is found across 39 cancer types, also amplifies immunomodulatory and inflammatory genes, which contribute to treatment resistance, immune evasion, and cancer spreading to other parts of the body.