Using breast cancer cells' weakness against themselves, UK scientists linked a tumour-selective antibody and developed a cell-killing drug that can destroy hard-to-treat tumours.
The findings, published
on Wednesday in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, target triple-negative
breast cancer -- typically aggressive and resistant to chemotherapy and
radiotherapy.
Accounting for up to 15
per cent of all diagnosed breast cancer, it also has a lower survival rate and
is more common in women under 40.
To probe the properties
of breast cancer cells linked to triple-negative breast cancer, a team from
King's College London conducted data analysis using over 6,000 breast cancer
samples.
After understanding how
the cancer cells escape from cancer drugs, they established the presence of the
cancer cell surface marker EGFR along with oncogenic molecules cyclin-dependent
kinases (CDK), which are responsible for cell division and proliferation.
Further, they linked
cetuximab -- a tumour-selective antibody that targets the EGFR protein
expressed in this type of cancer, with a CDK-blocking drug to create a tailored
drug for breast cancer.
"We were on the
hunt for cancer's vulnerabilities and now we've found out how we can guide our
therapies to one of these. We combined these two drugs to create a tailored
antibody-drug conjugate for patients with this aggressive cancer," said lead
author Professor Sophia Karagiannis, from King's College London.
The researchers noted
that as their "antibody-drug conjugate" targets the exact cancer
cell, administering a lower inhibitor dose than usual may be possible, and will
also be less toxic for the patient. They, however, called for more studies
before developing the drug.
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