Can protein therapy replace chemotherapy in cancer treatment?

As per the latest research findings, a protein therapy may act as an effective and safe alternative treatment option to chemotherapy, currently used treatment process to slow or stop progression of cancer. This experimental therapy has shown significant results in stopping the progression of breast and ovarian cancers in mice. This method acts by disrupting the process that causes the tumor cells to migrate from its original site and spread to various parts of the body through blood. By inhibiting the metastasis of cancer cells, this protein therapy in turn prevents the growth of cancerous cells elsewhere in the body.

Amato Giaccia, co-researcher and a professor at the Stanford University in the US said, ' This protein therapy showed effective and non-toxic results in pre-clinical experiments, which are quite promising. This approach could open doors to a new and effective treatment of cancer. The current treatment options of cancer involve chemotherapy that is targeted to slow or stop metastasis, but unfortunately this is not very effective in addition to causing severe side-effects on the patients. (Read: Basic cancer treatments: Surgery, Chemotherapy, Radiotherapy and Bone marrow transplants)

The researchers sought to stop metastasis by preventing two proteins - Axl and Gas6 - from interacting to initiate the spread of cancer. Axl proteins stand like bristles on the surface of cancer cells, poised to receive bio-chemical signals from Gas6 proteins. When two Gas6 proteins link with two Axls, the signals that are generated enable cancer cells to leave the original tumour site, migrate to other parts of the body and form new cancer nodules.

To stop this process, the researchers used protein engineering to create a harmless version of Axl that acts like a decoy. This decoy Axl latches on to Gas6 proteins in the blood stream and prevents them from linking with and activating the Axls present on cancer cells. The researchers gave intravenous treatments of this bio-engineered decoy protein to mice with aggressive breast and ovarian cancers. Mice in the breast cancer treatment group had 78 percent fewer metastatic nodules than untreated mice. Mice with ovarian cancer had a 90 percent reduction in metastatic nodules when treated with the engineered decoy protein. The study appeared in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.

What is chemotherapy and what are the side effects of the treatment?

Chemotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses drugs (anticancer drugs) to destroy cancer cells, stops them from spreading and slows their growth is called chemotherapy. Most of them are not specific to cancer cells and target all rapidly dividing cells like bone marrow cells, hair follicles, etc. Generally, normal cells can repair themselves. But many cancer cells are unable to do so and hence they die out.

There is another type of chemotherapy known as combination chemotherapy. In it, two or more drugs are often given in conjunction because they work better together than alone. Sometimes chemotherapy is designed to shrink a tumour to minimise the destruction and increase effectiveness of surgery or radiotherapy. This is called preoperative or neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Whatever line of treatment is finally decided, it is very important that you are assessed to determine whether you are capable of undergoing the treatment. Your doctor may also adjust the dose of drugs accordingly. (Read: Learn more about cancer chemotherapy)

With inputs from IANS

Image source: Getty images

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