Thursday, 28 March, 2024
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An array of new treatments for tumour cells

A radical new form of cancer treatment that relies on the body’s natural ‘killer cells’ to attack tumours has proved a success in the first clinical trials on patients suffering from advanced skin cancer. The immune-therapy is based on a biologically designed drug that binds tumour cells to the killer T-cells of the immune system, causing the cancer cells to self-destruct. [s]The Independent[/s] reports that scientists hope that the approach can be adapted for a wide range of other tumours, such as prostate, lung and ovarian cancers. Results of the phase 1 clinical trial designed to test the drug’s safety on 31 patients with advanced melanoma – the most dangerous form of skin cancer – showed there were few serious, long-lasting side effects and that in some cases the tumours started to shrink. The findings, presented at the [b]American Association for Cancer Research[/b] in San Diego, California, by Prof Mark Middletont of [b]Oxford University[/b], were better than expected and have already led to a phase-2 clinical trial to test the drug’s efficacy on skin cancer patients in both the UK and the US.

Research at [b]Duke University in North Carolina[/b], published in [s]Nature[/s], has found that pills that reduce the amount of copper could remove cancer from the body by 'starving' the cancerous cells, according to a [s]Daily Mail[/s] report. Too much copper in the blood, a condition caused sometimes by an excess of green vegetables and seafood, has been linked with melanoma, as well as breast, lung and thyroid cancer. While scientists do not believe copper causes cancer, they do believe it helps the cancer cells ‘breathe’. A clinical trial has been approved.

Researchers at the [b]Hebrew University of Jerusalem[/b] have, meanwhile, discovered a process whereby tumour cells become resistant to specific drugs, a finding that could significantly influence how anti-cancer drugs are administered, reports [s]Medical Xpress [/s]. While many drugs have been developed against cancer, doctors do not know in advance of treatment whether a patient might benefit from a particular drug. Thus, being able to identify in laboratory testing whether a patient's tumour is either resistant or sensitive to a specific drug is crucial to enabling the rapidly developing field of ‘personalised medicine’. The study in [s]Cell Reports[/s] found that breast, lung and colon cancer cells change the structure of an enzyme called Mnk2, which is involved in the transmission of information from the environment/body into the cell.

[link url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/radical-new-skin-cancer-treatment-shows-promise-in-first-clinical-trials-9247067.html]Full report in The Independent[/link]
[link url=http://www.abstractsonline.com/Plan/ViewAbstract.aspx?sKey=878a37f1-9ba0-4a0d-9c9b-c9414ae9ecf4&cKey=05af22ae-b8b4-4b78-961f-f6e246f08f59&mKey=%7b6FFE1446-A164-476A-92E7-C26446874D93%7d]AACR resentation abstract[/link]
[link url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2601187/Cancer-starved-taking-pills-remove-copper-body-say-scientists.html]Full Daily Mail report[/link]
[link url=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature13180.html]Nature abstract[/link]
[link url=http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-04-tumors-resistant-drugs-reversed-inhibit.html]Full Medical Xpress report[/link]
[link url=http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(14)00238-1]Cell full study[/link]

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