A drug to combat the growth of incurable, asbestos related, mesothelioma tumours may have been found.
Mesothelioma associated with asbestos exposure and usually develops within the lining of the lungs, although the cancer can also develop on the surface of other organs in the body.
Within a recent study conducted by UK based researchers in Surrey and Bradford, the researchers looked to have potentially developed a drug named, HRX9 which was initially given to mice as part of clinical trials.
The mice had cancerous mesothelioma cells implanted in them, following which they were provided with the HRX9 drug. The drug aims to help the body’s natural process in shutting down damaged cells. Whilst mesothelioma and other cancerous cells are normally able to bypass this, the drug, HRX9 prevented them from doing so.
The HRX9 drug was able to assist the natural process of apoptosis. This is where the immune system and healthy cells normally kill a damaged cell. However, cancer cells, including mesothelioma cells, are able to instigate strategies to ignore these signals and therefore continue to develop.
Identifying and acting in accordance with specific genes, the researchers found that the apoptotic process was enacted in all the mesothelioma cells. In addition, on the mice that were tested, this strategy prevented the growth of human tumours in the mice.
Within three weeks of being subjected to the treatment, the human cells located within the mice stopped growing; this caused a loss of blood to the tumour vessels and then led to the removal of the mesothelioma cancer cells.
An added bonus to the findings contained within the study was, the ability to predict which patients have the most aggressive mesothelioma cells. If the mesothelioma tumour contained a certain type of protein, patients inevitably had a shorter survival time. This will therefore assist the treating clinicians in identifying future treatment and care strategies when dealing with mesothelioma patients.
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