A toxic
antibody is the latest weapon to show promise as a broad spectrum treatment for
multiple forms of advanced cancer.
Dubbed a 'Trojan
horse' approach to chemotherapy, the new drug has proven itself worthy of
moving up the chain of clinical trials to being tested on a greater variety of
patients. It's not a fabled cure-all, but this approach might be as close as
we're going to get.
Researchers
from The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS
Foundation Trust tested the new treatment in a clinical trial involving 147
patients to evaluate its potential benefits and risks of side effects.
Called
tisotumab vedotin, or simply TV for short, the drug is made up of a monoclonal
antibody, and a cytotoxic component which can fatally damage cells.
The
antibody, if you like, is the spectacular gift horse at the enemy's door - it
seeks out cell-signalling flags in membranes called tissue factors and demands
entry.
While all
kinds of healthy cells have this factor, a wide variety of tumours exploit it
as a way to grow out of control, making it an appealing target for the
cytotoxic seek-and-destroy chemical weapon.
In this
case, the component tasked with this murderous job is monomethyl auristatin E,
a molecule that prevents cells from reproducing.
"What
is so exciting about this treatment is that its mechanism of action is
completely novel – it acts like a Trojan horse to sneak into cancer cells and
kill them from the inside," says oncologist Johann de Bono from TheInstitute of Cancer Research.
Learn more here.
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