Reasons for preventing epilepsy cancer, anti-cancer drugs, and radiation treatments have been revealed

Oct 20, 2025

Korean researchers have found out why cancer that has spread to the brain does not respond well to anticancer drugs and radiation therapy.

Even if standard treatment was performed on patients with epilepsy, the effectiveness was often reduced, but there was no accurate identification of why the treatment was not working. This study is noteworthy in that it proved that not only cancer cells but also the microenvironment surrounding them determine treatment outcomes.

A research team led by Professor Moon Kyung-seop of neurosurgery at Hwasun Chonnam National University Hospital and Professor Lee Kyung-hwa of the Department of Pathology confirmed that brain warfare plays a key role in treatment resistance.

According to the study, cancer cells secrete cytokines IL26 (Interleukin-26) and CX3CL1 signaling proteins to withstand anticancer drugs and radiation.

Experiments showed that IL26 activated the JAK-STAT3 pathway and CX3CL1 activated the AKT-mTOR pathway to increase the penetration and viability of cancer cells, thereby enhancing epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) and cancer stem cell characteristics.

On the other hand, blocking the two signals significantly reduced the tumor's growth rate, especially in the IL26 inhibition experiment, the therapeutic effect was clearly improved in animal models.

The research team found that brain metastasis is not the cancer cells themselves, but the cause of the treatment failure is not the cancer cells themselves"Controlling the IL26·CX3CL1 signal will significantly increase the treatment responsiveness of patients with lung cancer."," he stressed.

The findings were published in the September 2025 issue of the international journal Experimental Hematology & Oncology (IF13.5) and were conducted by first author S. M. Abdus Salam.

In addition, the paper was also selected by the POSTECH Biological Research Information Center (BRIC)'s 「People Who Shine Korea」, which introduces excellent research achievements in the field of life science, to inform the world of domestic research capabilities.