24
Aug 2018
New drug combination can ‘shrink cancer tumours’
Researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital have trialled a new drug combination, which they say may give patients with advanced lung or ovarian cancer more months of life, by stalling cancer growth and making some tumours shrink.
The therapy was tested on 40 patients with squamous non-small cell lung cancer and 25 women with advanced high-grade ovarian cancer. All those who participated in the trial had tumours which had spread throughout their body, and all other treatments had failed.
The researchers who carried out the work had previously found that ovarian cancer cells used a particular molecule known as p-S6K in order to grow quickly. They then tested the effects of a new drug by the name of vistusertib, which works by blocking the activation of the molecule, given alongside existing chemotherapy drug paclitaxel.
Professor Udai Banerji, lead researcher of the study, said “What we saw was very exciting. Over half the women with ovarian cancer and over a third of lung cancer patients saw their tumours shrink – and these are patients who had exhausted all other options.”
Charity Target Ovarian Cancer’s chief executive Annwen Jones, said “There are unfortunately very few treatment options left for women whose cancer has developed resistance to standard chemotherapy.
“The findings from this highly innovative combination therapy, if borne out by further research, would represent a landmark breakthrough in ovarian cancer treatment, giving hope and precious extra time to women and their families.”
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Posted by Karen Motley, Paralegal, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (karenmotley@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
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