Researchers at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, working in collaboration with Genome Protection, Inc. and Children’s Cancer Institute in Sydney, Australia, have discovered a novel way by which highly repetitive genetic components belonging to the LINE-1 family of retrotransposons enable tumors to escape treatment. The study demonstrates that LINE-1 activation can promote treatment resistance by inducing inflammatory pathways. Importantly, existing antiviral drugs overcame this resistance in preclinical cancer models.