New research led by a team from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and published in the journal Nature Methods reports the development of genetically encoded GTP sensors that can rapidly detect changes in GTP levels in living cells.

Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, or CIPN, is a common side effect of cancer treatment that causes shooting or burning pain, numbness, tingling and cold sensitivity of the hands and feet for many cancer patients.

While the development of therapies designed to block “checkpoints” within the immune system has been one of the most exciting and noteworthy advances in cancer research in recent years, it’s also been one of the most puzzling, leaving researchers to ask: Why don’t these new therapies work for more patients, and why is their efficacy in controlling cancerous tumors often short-lived? A research team from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has shown that at least one answer — and an excellent opportunity for unleashing the full potential of these promising immunotherapies — may lie in the body’s “fight or flight” reaction to stressors and in drugs already widely used to control and temporarily disable this stress response.