Platelets increase survival of adenocarcinoma cells challenged with anticancer drugs: mechanisms and implications for chemoresistance.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Cancer cells grow without the restraints of feedback control mechanisms, leading to increased cancer cell survival. The treatment of cancer is often complicated by the lack of response to chemotherapy leading to chemoresistance and persistent survival of tumour cells. In this work we studied the role of platelets in chemotherapy-induced cancer cell death and survival.