Scientists have successfully developed a revolutionary cancer treatment that illuminates and removes microscopic cancer cells, in a breakthrough that could allow surgeons to more effectively target and destroy disease in patients.
A European team of engineers, physicists, neurosurgeons, biologists and immunologists from the UK, Poland and Sweden have teamed up to design the new form of photoimmunotherapy.
Experts believe it is destined to become the fifth largest cancer treatment in the world after surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and immunotherapy.
Light-activated therapy forces cancer cells to glow in the dark, helping surgeons remove more tumors compared to existing techniques, and then kills the remaining cells within minutes of surgery. In a first global trial in mice with glioblastoma, one of the most common and aggressive types of brain cancer, scans revealed that the new treatment illuminated even the smallest cancer cells to help surgeons eliminate and then removed the leftovers.
Trials of the new form of photoimmunotherapy, led by the London Cancer Research Institute, also showed that the treatment triggered an immune response that could boost the immune system to target cancer cells in the future, suggesting that it could prevent glioblastoma from returning after surgery. Researchers are also studying the new treatment for childhood cancer neuroblastoma.
“Brain cancers like glioblastoma can be difficult to treat, and unfortunately there are few treatment options for patients,” study leader Dr. Gabriela Kramer-Marek told the Guardian. “Surgery is a challenge because of the location of the tumors, and therefore new ways of looking at the tumor cells that are removed during surgery and treating the residual cancer cells that remain afterwards could be great benefit “.
The ICR team leader in preclinical molecular imaging added: “Our study shows that a new photoimmunotherapy treatment that uses a combination of a fluorescent marker, afibody protein and near-infrared light can identify and treat “In the future, we hope that this approach can be used to treat human glioblastoma and potentially other cancers as well.”
Therapy combines a special fluorescent dye with an anti-cancer compound. In the mouse trial, the combination was shown to dramatically improve the visibility of cancer cells during surgery and, when later activated by near-infrared light, had an antitumor effect.
Scientists from the ICR, Imperial College London, Silesian Medical University, Poland and the Swedish company AffibodyAB believe that the new treatment could help surgeons more easily and effectively remove especially difficult tumors, such as those from head and neck.
The joint effort was largely funded by the ICR Cancer Research UK Convergence Science Center and Imperial College London, an association that brings together international scientists specializing in engineering, physics and life sciences to find ways innovative ways of tackling cancer.
“Multidisciplinary work is critical to finding innovative solutions to the challenges we face in cancer research, diagnosis and treatment, and this study is a great example,” said Professor Axel Behrens, leader of the ICR cancer stem cell team and scientist. director of the Cancer Research UK Convergence Science Center.
“This research demonstrates a new approach to identifying and treating glioblastoma cells in the brain through light to convert an immunosuppressive environment into an immunovulnerable one, and that has exciting potential as a therapy for this aggressive type of brain tumor.”
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After decades of progress in treating cancer, the four main forms that exist today — surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy — mean that more people diagnosed with the disease can be treated effectively and that a large number can be treated. live healthily for many years.
However, the proximity of some tumors to vital organs in the body means that it is vital that new ways of treating cancer be developed so that doctors can overcome the risk of damaging healthy parts of the body. Experts believe that photoimmunotherapy could be the answer.
When tumors grow in sensitive areas of the brain such as the motor cortex, which is involved in planning and controlling voluntary movements, glioblastoma surgery can leave behind tumor cells that can be very difficult to treat, which means that the disease can return. more aggressively later.
The new treatment uses synthetic molecules called afibodies. These are tiny proteins designed in the laboratory to bind to a specific target with high precision, in this case a protein called EGFR, which is mutated in many cases of glioblastoma.
Affiliates were then combined with a fluorescent molecule called IR700 and administered to mice prior to surgery. The bright light on the compounds made the dye glow, revealing microscopic regions of tumors in the brain for surgeons to remove. The laser then switched to nearby infrared light, which triggered antitumor activity, killing the remaining cells after surgery.
“Photoimmunotherapies could help us target cancer cells that can’t be removed during surgery, which can help people live longer after treatment,” said Dr. Charles Evans, manager. Cancer Research UK Research Information. He warned that there were still technical challenges to be overcome, such as reaching all parts of a tumor with near-infrared light, but added that he was “excited to see how this research will unfold”.