Innovative Approach to Combat Drug-Resistant Cancers Unveiled
Breakthrough in Cancer Treatment
New Delhi, Dec 30: An international research team has unveiled a novel strategy to tackle cancers that have developed resistance to existing treatments.
Led by scientists from Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science, the team focused on mutations that contribute to drug resistance in tumors, as reported by a news agency.
One of the significant hurdles in cancer therapy arises when treatments cease to be effective.
In numerous metastatic cancers, medications that initially show promise often lose efficacy over time due to mutations in cancer cells that allow them to proliferate.
The recent study, featured in the journal Cancer Discovery, suggests a fresh approach to combat cancer resistance by utilizing the mutations that confer resistance to fight the disease.
The researchers developed a computational tool named SpotNeoMet.
This tool identifies common therapy-resistant mutations across various patients.
These mutations generate small protein fragments known as neo-antigens, which are exclusive to cancer cells.
These shared neo-antigens could serve as a foundation for new immunotherapy strategies that encourage the immune system to specifically target cancer cells.
"Our findings illustrate a fundamental principle that could transform our approach to treatment-resistant cancers," stated Prof. Yardena Samuels from the Weizmann Institute.
"The mutations that enable a tumor to escape drug effects can, through targeted immunotherapy, become its vulnerability. Unlike personalized immunotherapies that require customization for each patient, these therapies could be applicable to larger patient groups," Samuels elaborated.
The team applied their method to metastatic prostate cancer, a condition where most patients ultimately develop resistance to conventional treatments.
They discovered three neo-antigens that yielded encouraging results in laboratory tests and mouse models.
The researchers emphasized that their approach is distinct from highly personalized therapies, as it targets resistance mutations that are prevalent among many patients, allowing for broader application of the same treatment for those with drug-resistant cancers.