Scientists hope to double the survival rate of people with advanced cancer within a decade by using new lines of attack to fight the disease.
Speaking at the launch of a five-year joint research strategy by the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in London, the experts described how targeting non-cancerous cells within the tumors could open new frontiers in the fight against cancer. disease, allowing more people to be cured and others to survive much longer.
Although cancer is initially driven by mutations that cause cells to begin growing and dividing abnormally, a tumor’s environment affects how it grows and spreads. “We increasingly see disease as a complex ecosystem, in which cancer cells evolve amid a meshwork of cells and signals from the surrounding tissue and the immune system,” said ICR Executive Director , Professor Kristian Helin. “We have identified the evolution of cancer within [this] ecosystem as a great challenge and opportunity for the next five years.”
One strategy they plan to deploy is to disrupt the ability of cancer cells to instruct other cells to come and support them. For example, cancer cells sometimes send signals to the bone marrow, instructing “slave cells” to create “nests” in other parts of the body where the cancer cells could migrate and create secondary tumors . Disruption of these systems would help stop the spread of cancer.
Experts are also learning how they can use drugs that talk to the immune system, increasing its ability to recognize and destroy cancer cells and reducing the activities of immune cells that come in to help protect the cells. cancer cells
“We aim to tip the balance in favor of the immune system and make the environment inhospitable to cancer cells and favorable to elements of the immune system that can attack them, so that we can extinguish the disease within the body.” , Kevin said. Harrington, professor of biological cancer therapeutics at the ICR and consultant at the Royal Marsden.
Another route is to use genetically modified viruses to “target cancer cells and also to talk to the microenvironment, the ecosystem the cancer is in, in order to generate a signal to reject the cancer and kill those cells carcinogens,” Professor Harrington said.
The scientists will also expand the research underpinning the development of “liquid biopsies” to identify disease in its early stages. Tumors often shed microscopic fragments of genetic material into the bloodstream, which could be detected and used to help inform treatment. These blood tests are already being used to personalize cancer treatment and identify recurrence earlier.
Dr Naureen Starling, consultant medical oncologist at the Royal Marsden, said: “We believe this technology also has the potential to transform cancer diagnosis, particularly for traditionally difficult-to-detect tumor types such as the pancreas. [cancer]so it could lead to rapid improvements in patient outcomes.”
The researchers also plan to use artificial intelligence to design new ways to combine drugs or adjust their dosage, with the goal of halting the evolution of cancer within its ecosystem and increasing how long people can survive with advanced cancer.
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Dr Olivia Rossanese, Director of Cancer Drug Discovery at the ICR, said: “We intend to open up entirely new lines of attack against cancer, so that we can overcome cancer’s deadly ability to evolve and become resistant to treatment.
“We want to discover better targets within tumors and the broader ecosystem that we can target with drugs. We are finding powerful new ways to completely eradicate cancer proteins and discovering smarter combination treatments that attack cancer on multiple fronts.
“Together, this three-pronged approach can create smarter, kinder cancer treatments and give patients a longer life with fewer side effects.”