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Close to the Cure?

During the year 2016, the National Cancer Institute was granted $5.21 billion to allocate towards cancer research (NIH). Furthermore, the work of independent organizations and individuals fundraise billions of dollars annually toward fighting this deadly disease.

Even with today’s advanced medical care about 1,500 individuals die of cancer each day. It seems like this fight is one we may never win (Thomara Latimer Cancer Foundation). However, a recent cancer study showed promising results, offering us a glimpse of hope for the future of cancer treatment.

Many cancers are currently treated with immunotherapy. Immunotherapy is a form of treatment that utilizes your own immune system to fight the disease (American Cancer Society). This study conducted by doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario found that a specific combination of known immunotherapy treatments were successful in killing the brain tumors of mice at a significant rate.

“A combination of drugs known as SMAC Mimetics and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) amplifies kill rates of cancer tumor cells in laboratory testing (Science Daily).”

Now that sounds very confusing, so I am going to breakdown this treatment.

According to the NIH, SMAC Mimetics is a class of drug that causes cell apoptosis, or sudden cell death. To do this the drug utilizes “inhibitor of apoptosis proteins” (IAPs). This means the treatment inhibits immune checkpoints by blocking life sustaining signals between the cells. As a result, the cells die.

This is why the treatment is considered to be a form of immunotherapy! It uses the body’s own immune system to fight its own cancer cells.

This combination drug was tested in mice. It was targeted to attack brain tumors. The results demonstrated that the immunotherapy treatment successfully “amplified tumor-killing effect that was greater than either agent on its own (Scientific Daily).” (The two agents being the SMAC Mimetics and the ICIs) More simply, the two components are stronger when combined.

This treatment has the potential to work just as well in humans. In fact, two companies have already began the clinical trial process. They are evaluating how well SMAC Mimetics and ICIs work when targeted toward human brain tumors. They are also assessing the safety of the treatment from the perspectives of overall heath and neural health.

The benefits to this treatment are apparent. If the clinical trials progress as the researchers hope, it will be possible to manufacture and administer this immunotherapy treatment across the nation, and eventually world-wide. Having the ability to kill cancerous tumors with a drug will save hundreds of thousands of people in the United States each year!

Despite the great impact this may have on medicine, there are some drawbacks. The treatment is new, therefore the only data or knowledge we will have about the drug and its effects is the information gathered from a series of short term studies. Although the treatment may seem safe and effective over the course of a study that lasts a few years, it is possible that it will have more damaging long term effects.

Being the current trial is targeting cancerous brain tumors, is there a chance the drug can decrease the function of healthy brain cells? Does the drug effect the speed by which a signal travels along a neuron? Do people who undergo this form of immunotherapy have a higher risk of developing dementia later on in life?

These questions can only be answered with time. The drug may become one the the greatest cancer treatments on the market, but do not forget that there are unknown risks to any treatment.

Sources:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170215101427.htm

https://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatments-and-side-effects/treatment-types/immunotherapy.html

https://www.cancer.gov/about-nci/budget

http://www.ddw-online.com/therapeutics/p149034-smac-mimetics:-a-new-class-of-targeted-agents-that-activate-apoptotic-cell-death-and-block-pro-survival-signalling-in-cancer-cells-fall-11.html

http://www.thomlatimercares.org/Cancer_Facts.htm