Treat cancer in a new way
Doctors have proposed a fundamentally new strategy to fight cancer
The Institute of Cancer Research at the University of London – one of the world's leading centers in the field of oncology – has announced the launch of a fundamentally new cancer control program, according to the institute's website (World's first ‘Darwinian’ cancer drug program aims to deliver step change in cancer treatment). It will not be aimed at the complete destruction of tumor cells in the body, but at stopping their development. This strategy will avoid the emergence of new forms of cancer that are not amenable to conventional treatments.
The institute's executive director, Professor Paul Workman, says: "This is about solving the biggest problem we face in cancer treatment and biology, namely drug resistance." Tumor cells that manage to survive after chemotherapy and immunotherapy eventually mutate and regain the ability to form tumors. As a result, the disease returns, often in a more severe form, metastases may occur in other parts of the body. Tumors cease to respond to treatment with previously used drugs, and the disease usually ends in death.
The Institute of Cancer Research intends to refocus its work, aiming not just to kill cancer cells, but also to hinder their development. The goal is to eliminate the fatal outcome and turn cancer into a disease that, even if a complete cure is impossible, will no longer be life-threatening. With an oncological diagnosis, it will be possible to live for a long time, just as patients with diabetes live thanks to regular insulin intake, and people infected with HIV take antiretroviral drugs.
Scientists expect that work on the first drug of a new type will be completed in ten years. It will target the APOBEC molecule, an enzyme from the cytosine deaminase class that plays a role in the formation of human antiviral immunity, but when its regulation is disrupted, it helps tumor cells mutate faster. Then it accelerates the emergence of drug resistance in about half of the types of cancer.
The new drug can be used in conjunction with other anti-cancer drugs. "We believe that this will be the first treatment in the world that, instead of dealing with the consequences of the development and drug resistance of cancer, will primarily be aimed at directly countering the ability of the disease to adapt and develop," said researcher Olivia Rossanese.
Olivia Rossanese will head the new Cancer Drug Discovery Center that the Institute of Cancer Research is creating at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, Surrey. Representatives of many sciences will work there: from artificial intelligence specialists to biologists. The mechanisms of tumor evolution will be studied on cell cultures, laboratory animals and in the body of patients. 75 million pounds have already been invested in the creation of the center, the Cancer Research Institute hopes to receive the missing 15 million during a fundraising campaign.
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