In a clinical and pre-clinical trial, scientists have developed a new approach that can combat acquired resistance to treatment. Cancer typically escapes targeted therapies through evolutionary processes, as tumor cells become more complex and robust.
Tumor recurrence
In their study, the scientists focused on cutaneous melanoma – the deadliest type of skin cancer – in the cells (melanocytes) that produce the pigment melanin that gives skin its colour. Melanoma may also affect the eye, but it rarely affects parts of the body such as the nose or throat from the inside.
Immediately after the initiation of partially targeted treatment of melanoma, genetic and epigenetic changes associated with tumor progression and cell carcinogenesis occur, as these changes are one of the hallmarks of cancer.
“Aggressive tumors such as melanoma evade highly effective new therapies such as molecularly targeted therapy by disrupting the genome, creating changes that allow the tumor to prevail over the treatment and the patient,” says Roger Low, the lead author of the research team.
Lu adds, in exclusive statements to “Sky News Arabia,” that he and his colleagues in the study found a way to disrupt the occurrence of these changes, and thus prevent tumor recurrence.
The philosophy of the approach adopted by the researchers can be simplified into the common wisdom that says: “prevention is better than cure.” This approach can be used to prevent a clinical relapse from occurring in the first place, rather than to treat it, as relapse treatment is very complex and difficult.
responsible protein
Roger Lu, UCLA Comprehensive Cancer Center researcher, is also Professor of Medicine and Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Lu and team’s experiment was conducted in mouse models. By analyzing tumor biopsies taken before targeted therapy and then at the time of tumor regression, the researchers discovered that a protein called DNA-PK is specifically involved in the upregulation of key genes that drive treatment resistance.
Understanding the mechanism of melanoma resistance to treatment opens the door to a way to treat other deadly tumors, such as: lung and pancreatic cancer, according to Roger Low.
Lu told Sky News Arabia that he designed a clinical trial with his colleague, Professor Stergios Moskos, and it is under evaluation and approval.
And about the timeframe for conducting the clinical trial, he points out that once the trial is initiated, it will take from one to three years to complete. If the experiment is successful, extensive verification of the results will be carried out before adopting the new approach in treatment plans for cancer patients.
