HAYLEY KAMIN

MUSC Communications

Researchers at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center have discovered a potentially powerful weapon in the fight against head and neck cancers. The new drug, still in preclinical studies, attacks cancer cells from within by damaging their mitochondria, the cells' energy factories.

The study, published in Cancer Research, was led by Besim Ogretmen, Ph.D., associate director of Basic Science at Hollings and director of Hollings' Lipidomics Shared Resource.

The multidisciplinary research team aimed to suppress tumor growth in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, a cancer that develops in the cells lining the head and neck, such as the nose, mouth and throat. This highly aggressive form of cancer is treatment resistant, and a significant number of patients who recei

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