The discovery of how some abnormal cells can avoid a biochemical program of self-destruction by increasing their energy level and repairing the damage, is giving investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital insights into a key strategy cancer cells use to survive and thrive.

The finding offers an explanation of how abnormal cells that have cheated death once by disabling the main suicide pathway called apoptosis can also foil a backup self-destruct program, which allows them to survive and become cancerous.

The St. Jude study also suggests that a drug that disrupts a cancer cell’s ability to block this backup program would allow that program to kill the cell. Such a specifically targeted drug might be more effective and less toxic than standard chemotherapy. A report on this work is in the June 1 issue of “Cell.”