Researchers have proven in laboratory research in mice, that itraconazole successfully halts the growth and development of certain sorts of bowel cancer. The following step might be to see if this holds real in patients with the disease.
Scientist, said: "one of the most important challenges in treating any cancer is the diversity of different cells within the same tumor. We’ve targeted a kind of cell that lies asleep within bowel tumors, remaining unresponsive to treatment and putting the patient at risk of their cancer coming back."
They characterized the molecular nature of dormant bowel cancer cells. these 'sleeping' cells are resistant to drugs, which include chemotherapy, which works by means of targeting cells which are actively developing. So even though it looks like a treatment has worked, some of these dormant cells can later awaken after treatment has finished and resulted in the tumor re-growing.
The scientists recognized key pathways concerned in cell dormancy and used miniature bowel tumors grown from the cells of mice with cancer, to check different drugs targeting these pathways.
They discovered, for the first time, that itraconazole blocked signals from a pathway known as Wnt, which is implicated in the growth and unfolding of many different cancers. This caused the tumors collapsing in the mice -- dormant cells disappeared and the tumor stopped developing.
They said "What’s interesting is this drug appears to kick both dormant and non-dormant cells into action. It forces cells back into a quick cycle of growth before slamming on an irreversible 'stop' button, entering a permanent standstill it is known as senescence."
The following stage will be to test this drug in human beings. The researchers hope to set up a clinical trial in which they can test its effect on patients with difficult to treat advanced bowel cancer. They also intend to research whether this drug might be more effective in combination with other treatments like chemotherapy.
"This innovative study has taken a step toward addressing one of the biggest challenges in cancer research. Tumours are made of many different types of cancer cells that can evolve separately and respond to treatments in a different way.
"The presence of drug-resistant, dormant tumor cells is a problem in many kinds of cancer. If we discover approaches to target those cells in bowel cancer, it would provide insights into tackling the problem of dormant tumor cells more broadly."
No comments:
Post a Comment