Brighton researchers' discovery may prolong cancer patients’ lives (From The Argus)
Get involved: Send your news, views, pictures and video by texting SUPIC to 80360 or email us.
Brighton researchers' discovery may prolong cancer patients’ lives
5:10pm Monday 18th March 2013 in News By Siobhan Ryan, Health Reporter
Professor of structural biology Laurence Pearl
Cancer patients around the world could have their lives extended thanks to a discovery made by Sussex scientists.
Researchers at the University of Sussex, who have been working with the Institute of Cancer Research, have found that a cutting-edge cancer drug may be able to keep patients alive for longer than they live now.
The discovery by the researchers, who looked at exactly how the drugs attack tumours, has been hailed as “unexpected and exciting”.
The drugs, known as kinase inhibitors, are a new type of treatment, with 25 currently in use on a variety of cancers.
Another 400 are under development.
Around 5,000 to 10,000 patients receive the drugs in the UK each year, with that number set to grow as more of the drugs are approved for use.
Kinase inhibitors work across types of breast, skin, lung and kidney cancer, but often only extend life by around three to six months.
Researchers believe they can unlock the true potential of the drugs by changing the way they are used – after uncovering a hidden way that they work.
Keeping cancer at bay
The researchers now plan to conduct clinical trials using kinase inhibitors at higher doses, but with rest periods to take advantage of the new mechanism – and believe the new method has the potential to keep cancers at bay for much longer.
Laurence Pearl, a professor of structural biology in the Medical Research Council Genome Damage and Stability Centre at the University of Sussex, said: “Basically, the drugs at the moment are used to slow the progress of the cancer, but from what we have discovered, they can also be used in another way that may |actually damage the cancer cells instead.
“It seems these drugs work in a different way than people realised and they may be able to do a lot more than we realised.
Effective drugs
“It shows how important it is to understand the basic biology of how cancer drugs work.
“We have more work to do to understand this mechanism fully, but we are optimistic that our discovery will help many patients live for longer.”
Study co-author Professor Paul Workman, the deputy chief executive of the Institute of Cancer Research, said: “We already knew these drugs were very effective, but we now think they could be even better.
“There is more work to do to prove the benefit to patients, but these drugs are already approved so there are fewer regulatory burdens than usual to overcome to test our new idea.”
See the latest news headlines from The Argus:
- Police release pictures of brothers wanted in connection with Hove shooting
- Albion sex trial jury sent out to consider verdict
- Mayor of Cuckfield fronts High Weald Welly Walk
- Smart return for circus
- M23 northbound near Pease Pottage closed after lorry fire
Add us to your circles on Google+
Comments(5)
Cold cold ground
says...
7:30pm Mon 18 Mar 13
lillylou wrote:If you read the article very very carefully it says at the end that the drugs are "approved" which is the reason that this amazing research is happening and with ease for the researchers. This also means that any one can get these drugs at point of need. No need to be rich or in the right postcode. So your point is mute dear chap!
is it for the rich or postcode lottery
qm
says...
12:24am Tue 19 Mar 13
Cold cold ground wrote:"Approved" is no guarantee that any particular local authority is prepared to pay for treatment. There are countless examples of local health authorities refusing to fund treatment on the basis of cost which is where the term "post code lottery" comes from.
lillylou wrote:If you read the article very very carefully it says at the end that the drugs are "approved" which is the reason that this amazing research is happening and with ease for the researchers. This also means that any one can get these drugs at point of need. No need to be rich or in the right postcode. So your point is mute dear chap!
is it for the rich or postcode lottery
Also, I suspect that "lillylou" is unlikely to be a "chap", dear or otherwise!
Greg Pawelski
says...
7:33pm Tue 19 Mar 13
Laboratories like Rational Therapeutics and Weisenthal Cancer Group have been testing erlotinib (Tarceva), lapatinib (Tykerb), sorafenib (Nexavar) and vemurafenib (Zelboraf) - the 'nib' drugs, along with about eight other kinase inhibitors, in actual human tumor primary culture micro-spheroids (microclusters), in various cancers.
This is exactly the area they are interested in. Specifically re-examine the role of all of these compounds in a wide variety of disease. They have often recommend higher dose, pulse/intermittent therapy, in combination with other agents. In addition, they have been successfully increasing the dose of erlotinib (Tarceva) to recapture patients.
These drugs are not identical, however. Some work in some tumors, while others do not -- yet in other tumors, the drugs which didn't work do work and vice versa. You'd think that if they all had the identical mechanism of action that they'd all work or they'd all not work; but that's not the way it goes.
It may have something to do with entry into the cell; efflux out of the cells; inactivation, or whatever. It does show that there's much more to the action of a drug than simply the presence of a "target" molecule.
qm
says...
9:13pm Tue 19 Mar 13
lillylou says...
5:21pm Mon 18 Mar 13