Low dose HSP90 inhibition with AUY922 blunts rapid evolution of metastatic and drug resistant phenotypes induced by TGF-β and paclitaxel in A549 cells.

Objectives: Despite advances in cancer treatment, drug resistance and metastasis continue to contribute to treatment failure. Since drug resistance and metastasis in cancer are features that often occur toward the late stages in the disease after withstanding numerous selective pressures, they may rely on a shared adaptive mechanism in order to persist. The heat shock response is one of the most well conserved adaptive responses to cellular stress found in nature.