Drug targets cancer cell defense, makes radiation and chemotherapy more effective
Chemotherapy and radiation resistance is a problem some cancer patients face. Now, researchers from the San Diego School of Medicine identified the cause of the resistance and developed a drug to beat it.
“It was previously known that RAF (a family of proteins that regulate cellular signaling) governs resistance to therapies. We discovered an undescribed role for RAF and learned precisely how it occurs in a broad range of cancers,” said lead author Sunil Advani, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Medicine and Applied Sciences.
RAF is a pathway used by tumor cells to protect their DNA from chemo and radiation. A drug-like compound called KG5 is used to stop the pathway to take down the tumor’s defenses.
“We are taking the tumor’s defenses away by targeting this pathway. By developing this drug, we have the potential to enhance radiation sensitivity of cancer while sparing healthy tissue. This drug increases the DNA-damaging effects of radiation and certain chemotherapies,” said principal investigator, David Cheresh, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Pathology and associate director for Innovation and Industry
Alliances at Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health. “We essentially get more anti-tumor activity with less radiation or chemotherapeutic drug. This allows us to see the anti-tumor effect while reducing terrible side effects. We have seen this in pancreatic, brain and lung cancer cells both in cell culture and in tumors growing in mice.”
Chemotherapy may be the only choice for patients with late-stage cancers. Researchers hope to increase their survival rate with their new drug.
“For patients with aggressive cancers, there may be no good options left,” said Advani. “Armed with this new approach, our goal is utilize such a drug to improve the clinical outcomes of some of the most widely used anti-cancer therapies.”
Category: Features, Pharmaceuticals
