Cancer News and Discussions

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Researchers develop light-controlled drugs for future precision therapies against diseases such as cancer
https://phys.org/news/2023-02-light-con ... apies.html
by Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Researchers from the Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC) of Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) have developed a series of photosensitive molecule drugs that can be reversibly activated by external light, thus achieving a much more localized and controlled biological effect. This research, published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, suggests that photopharmacology (drugs controlled by light) paves the path for highly specific therapies that could open new avenues for the treatment of diseases such as cancer.

One limitation of cancer drugs is that they often fail to fully differentiate between cancer cells and healthy cells. This lack of selectivity of current chemotherapy limits its therapeutic window, which decreases the effectiveness of the treatment and causes unwanted side effects.

"Photosensitive drugs, whose activity can be precisely controlled with external light in a reversible manner, can solve this problem, since they provide a great control of the site of action and for a desired time, thus decreasing the side effects and increasing their efficacy," explains Laia Josa Culleré, researcher from the Medicinal Chemistry and Synthesis group of IQAC, and lead author of this study.
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Scientists make breakthrough for 'next generation' cancer treatment
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02- ... tment.html
by University of East Anglia

Scientists at the University of East Anglia are a step closer to creating a new generation of light-activated cancer treatments. The futuristic-sounding treatment would work by switching on LED lights embedded close to a tumor, which would then activate biotherapeutic drugs.

These new treatments would be highly targeted and more effective than current state-of-the-art cancer immunotherapies.

New research published today in Nature Chemical Biology reveals the science behind this innovative idea. It shows how the UEA team have engineered antibody fragments—which not only "fuse" with their target but are also light activated.

It means that in future, immunotherapy treatments could be engineered to attack tumors more precisely than ever before.
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caltrek
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Cancer Patients Who Don’t Respond to Immunotherapy Lack Crucial Immune Cells
February 16, 2023

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) Immunotherapy has transformed cancer care. In advanced melanoma, for example, the most fatal form of skin cancer, the five-year survival rate has risen from less than 10% to more than 50% since immunotherapy was introduced in 2011. Still, only about half of melanoma patients respond to immunotherapy, and those who do not respond face a difficult future.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered that the difference between people who do and do not respond to immunotherapy may have to do with an immune cell known as CD5+ dendritic cells because they bear the protein CD5 on their outer surfaces. Their research showed that people with a variety of kinds of cancers, including melanoma, lived longer if they had more CD5+ dendritic cells in their tumors, and that mice that lacked CD5 on their dendritic cells were unable to respond well to immunotherapy.

The findings, published Feb. 17 in the journal Science, suggest that a supplementary therapy designed to increase the number or activity of CD5+ dendritic cells potentially could extend the lifesaving benefits of immunotherapy to more cancer patients.

“Immunotherapy has revolutionized the field of cancer therapy, but there are a lot of patients with cancer who don’t benefit from it,” said senior author Eynav Klechevsky, PhD, an assistant professor of pathology & immunology and a researcher at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. “Part of the reason some people do not respond well to some forms of immunotherapy is because this population of dendritic cells is reduced dramatically. We’re developing some novel immune-based approaches to boost the activation of these CD5-expressing dendritic cells with a goal of helping more patients respond to immunotherapy.”

The immune system defends the body against cancer by activating immune cells known as T cells to recognize and kill tumor cells. In response, tumor cells manipulate the immune checkpoint system — a safeguard that prevents T cells from mistakenly attacking healthy cells — to hoodwink T cells into leaving them alone. Immune checkpoint blockade therapy works by thwarting tumor cells’ manipulations, thereby freeing T cells to recognize and destroy tumors. But even with therapy, some people’s T cells are unable to do their job effectively.
Read more of the EurekAlert article here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/980053

For a technical presentation as published in Science: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abg2752
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Researchers make major advance with cancer-killing antibody-drug conjugates
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02- ... gates.html
by Doug Bennett, University of Florida
Building a new precision cancer treatment comes with no shortage of scientific challenges. Now, a group of University of Florida researchers have made a significant discovery in the effort to develop potent, highly targeted chemotherapies for breast and other cancers.

Scientists at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology have spent years developing antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, that combine a protective protein and a cancer-killing drug. Findings published recently in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry detail the first time a particular type of cancer-killing "payload" has been used for ADC development.

The laboratory findings in leukemia cells are a key step in creating new medicinal payloads that can be altered and translated into ADCs to treat different types of cancer, the researchers said.

"We have shown we can precisely generate ADCs in a manner that is different than what anyone has done in the clinic. It's the ability to customize every single portion of ADCs in a pretty rapid fashion," said Andrew D. Steele, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research associate and co-first author of the paper.

Steele likens an ADC to a biological guided missile: The antibody is a targeting system that takes aim at the cancer. A potent, toxic compound is similar to a warhead, killing cancer cells by obliterating its DNA. A chemical linker acts like vital missile hardware, connecting the antibody and its chemical payload.

Building a new cancer-killing ADC posed several significant scientific hurdles, Steele said. Attaching payloads to antibodies in a controlled manner is quite challenging. Antibodies often have to be re-engineered for different types of cancers. Also, only six payloads are being used in federally approved ADCs. The current findings address all of those challenges, Steele said. The research was co-led by Ben Shen, Ph.D., a professor and director of the Natural Products Discovery Center, and professor Christoph Rader, Ph.D., both of The Wertheim UF Scripps Institute.
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Estimates and Projections of the Global Economic Cost of 29 Cancers in 204 Countries and Territories From 2020 to 2050
by Simiao Chen, ScD; Zhong Cao, BE; Klaus Prettner, PhD5,6; et al
February 23 , 2023

Introduction:
(JAMA Network)

Key Points

Question What is the estimated economic cost and cost distribution of 29 cancers in 204 countries and territories from 2020 to 2050?
Findings In this decision analytical modeling study, the global economic cost of cancers from 2020 to 2050 was estimated to be $25.2 trillion (in international dollars at constant 2017 prices). The economic burden and the health burden were distributed unequally across countries, world regions, and country income groups.

Meaning

Results of this study suggest that global efforts to contain projected increases in the burden of cancers are warranted.

Abstract

Importance Cancers are a leading cause of mortality, accounting for nearly 10 million annual deaths worldwide, or 1 in 6 deaths. Cancers also negatively affect countries’ economic growth. However, the global economic cost of cancers and its worldwide distribution have yet to be studied.
Objective To estimate and project the economic cost of 29 cancers in 204 countries and territories.
Read more here: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamao ... rm=022323

caltrek’s comment: Having just completed reading The China Study by T. Colinn Campbell I wonder how much of these costs could be avoided by the simple expedient of a massive shift in developed countries to a Whole Foods, Plant Based approach to our diets. This is hampered by various cultural and political barriers. The political barriers being those put up by the meat and dairy industry to hamper governments from encouraging such a shift. Another example of the dysfunctional nature of capitalism as currently practiced.
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Researchers develop small molecule to stimulate natural killer cells against neuroblastoma

by Leslie Cantu, Medical University of South Carolina
https://phys.org/news/2023-02-small-mol ... cells.html
An MUSC Hollings Cancer Center research team has created what team members believe to be among the first small molecules designed to stimulate immune cells to fight cancer. More importantly, these compounds inhibit a specific enzyme that hasn't been targeted with small molecules for the treatment of cancer.

Small molecules are, quite literally, small. They're hundreds of times smaller than monoclonal antibodies currently used in therapy, and they're also structurally much simpler. Because of their low molecular mass, they are much more likely to enter cells. Aspirin, for example, is a small molecule drug.

The team from the lab of Hollings researcher Patrick Woster, Ph.D., describes its findings in a paper in Chemical Science. Postdoctoral fellow Catherine Mills, Ph.D., said she wanted to look for potential new therapies for neuroblastoma, a serious and often fatal pediatric tumor.

The resulting research project served as the subject of her doctoral dissertation. Mills explained that the small molecule the team created has the potential to one day be an adjuvant therapy, a therapy that boosts the effects of another treatment, for other cancers in addition to neuroblastoma.
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Michigan State University Research: DNA Repair Discovery Could Improve Biotechnology
March 2, 2023

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) A team of researchers from Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine has made a discovery that may have implications for therapeutic gene editing strategies, cancer diagnostics and therapies and other advancements in biotechnology.

Kathy Meek, a professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, and collaborators at Cambridge University and the National Institutes of Health have uncovered a previously unknown aspect of how DNA double-stranded breaks are repaired.

A large protein kinase called DNA-PK starts the DNA repair process; in their new report, two distinct DNA-PK protein complexes are characterized, each of which has a specific role in DNA repair that cannot be assumed by the other.

“It still gives me chills,” says Meek. “I don't think anyone would have predicted this.”
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/981473
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Pfizer buys Seagen for $43B, boosts access to cancer drugs
Source: AP

By TOM MURPHY and MICHELLE CHAPMAN an hour ago

Pfizer is spending about $43 billion to reach deeper into new cancer treatments that target tumor cells while sparing surrounding healthy tissue.

The pharmaceutical giant said Monday it will pay $229 in cash for each share of Seagen Inc. Pfizer then plans to let the biotech drug developer “continue innovating,” except with more resources than it would have alone, Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla told analysts.

“We are not buying the golden eggs,” he said. “We are acquiring the goose that is laying the golden eggs.”

Bothell, Washington-based Seagen Inc. specializes in working with antibody-drug conjugate, or ADC, technology. Its key products use lab-made proteins called monoclonal antibodies that seek out cancer cells to help deliver a cancer-killing drug while sparing surrounding tissue.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/pfizer-seage ... osition_10
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Scientists reveal a potential new approach to treating liver cancer
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-03- ... liver.html
by National Institutes of Health

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have uncovered a potential new approach against liver cancer that could lead to the development of a new class of anticancer drugs. In a series of experiments in cells and mice, researchers found that an enzyme produced in liver cancer cells could convert a group of compounds into anticancer drugs, killing cells and reducing disease in animals.

The researchers suggest that this enzyme could become a potential target for the development of new drugs against liver cancers, and perhaps other cancers and diseases as well.
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