The power of chemotherapeutic engineering: arresting cell cycle and suppressing senescence to protect from mitotic inhibitors.

Suppose one drug causes lethal mitotic arrest, another treatment causes irreversible senescence and a third drug inhibits cellular mass growth: Could cells treated with a combination of all three agents magically emerge alive and proliferating? The result of this experiment is presented here. By knowing the mechanisms of cell cycle arrest, death and senescence, we can design "rainbow combinations" that obediently kill or spare desired cells. Knowledge is power.