Figure 6. Model. Antimitotic drugs such as taxanes and Aurora A inhibitors have been developed and used to target and kill cancerous cells. However, chemotherapy resistance, both intrinsic and acquired, limits the efficacy of these drugs. We found that promoting mitotic exit by applying hyperthermia after exposing cancerous cells to antimitotic drugs, dramatically enhances cell death by mitotic catastrophe of either PTX sensitive or resistant cells. Our results indicate that block of mitotic exit can trigger cell death by apoptosis. Thus, studies of mitotic manipulation will help to rationally design novel combinatorial regimens for cancer treatment.