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Killing Cancer Like a Vampire Slayer
September 18, 2009Like vampires, cancer tumors require an ample supply of blood to stay alive. Without fresh blood for sustenance, cancer cells shrivel up like raisins and die.
To that end, Dr. Ronit Satchi-Fainaro of Tel Aviv University's Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sackler School of Medicine, and her team of researchers have developed a new drug carrier to deliver compounds straight to the tumor. Ferrying a variety of existing life-saving therapies right to their target so they can work more effectively, this new invention may alleviate particularly nasty forms of cancers like osteosarcomas and bone metastases. Dr. Satchi-Fainaro believes that her technology can also combat resistance to anti-cancer drugs like Taxol, keeping other normal healthy cells around the tumor safe.
Dr. Satchi-Fainaro, together with two of her doctoral students, Ehud Segal and Keren Miller, has just published papers in the prestigious journals Angewandte Chemie and PLoS One on their pre-clinical findings in cellular and animal models using this new discovery.
Fatal attractions
The findings, Dr. Satchi-Fainaro says, could be applied to any tumor type and work to improve the efficacy of today's anti-cancer drugs. "Our two recent studies are on bone cancers and metastasis, and doctors know that most metastasis from breast or prostate cancers to the bone will not respond to chemotherapy. Many times, at this advanced stage of disease, patients are given drugs for palliative rather than curative reasons," she says. "We are out to change that bleak prognosis."
Dr. Satchi-Fainaro's research is based on an understanding of the parasitic behavior of cancer. Most of us have small tumors in our body at all times. They start the size of a pinhead and usually remain at that size as dormant and asymptomatic tumors. Then, at some point, cancer cells proliferate and the tumor grows in mass. At that point the tumor cells migrate to the bones and start recruiting blood vessels using a chemical attractant in order to draw blood for their continued growth in a process called angiogenesis. The researchers looked into the chemical that causes the blood, or endothelial cells, to gravitate to the activated, newly malignant cancer cells.
Living with (instead of dying from) cancer
Armed with this information, "we can turn cancer into a chronic manageable disease," says Dr. Satchi-Fainaro. Her innovative drug delivery system delivers compounds like Taxol known to stop blood vessel growth to cancerous tumors. She bound existing cancer drugs to an inert polymer that doesn't react with the immune system. "Like a stealth airplane," she says, the polymer passes through the body's defense system unnoticed. Then, programmed to find the tumor using the bisphosphonate drug Alendronate, a drug that binds to bones, the carrier delivers its cancer-killing payload.
In animal models, Dr. Satchi-Fainaro found that she was able to reverse the growth of bone cancer tumors. In a second study, she found that loading her polymer with the anti-cancer drug Taxol could inhibit tumor growth by 50%, compared to a Taxol dose that had no effect on tumor growth at all.
Water-soluble and inert, the carrier was found to leak from the blood only at the tumor site. Regular drug formulations diffuse through the whole body, attacking both normal and diseased organs. This makes Dr. Satchi-Fainaro's formulation more effective at targeting tumors. Her new drug also has applications in other diseases involving dysfunctional blood vessel growth, such as diabetes and arthritis.
American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Fatal attractions
The findings, Dr. Satchi-Fainaro says, could be applied to any tumor type and work to improve the efficacy of today's anti-cancer drugs. "Our two recent studies are on bone cancers and metastasis, and doctors know that most metastasis from breast or prostate cancers to the bone will not respond to chemotherapy. Many times, at this advanced stage of disease, patients are given drugs for palliative rather than curative reasons," she says. "We are out to change that bleak prognosis."
Dr. Satchi-Fainaro's research is based on an understanding of the parasitic behavior of cancer. Most of us have small tumors in our body at all times. They start the size of a pinhead and usually remain at that size as dormant and asymptomatic tumors. Then, at some point, cancer cells proliferate and the tumor grows in mass. At that point the tumor cells migrate to the bones and start recruiting blood vessels using a chemical attractant in order to draw blood for their continued growth in a process called angiogenesis. The researchers looked into the chemical that causes the blood, or endothelial cells, to gravitate to the activated, newly malignant cancer cells.
Living with (instead of dying from) cancer
Armed with this information, "we can turn cancer into a chronic manageable disease," says Dr. Satchi-Fainaro. Her innovative drug delivery system delivers compounds like Taxol known to stop blood vessel growth to cancerous tumors. She bound existing cancer drugs to an inert polymer that doesn't react with the immune system. "Like a stealth airplane," she says, the polymer passes through the body's defense system unnoticed. Then, programmed to find the tumor using the bisphosphonate drug Alendronate, a drug that binds to bones, the carrier delivers its cancer-killing payload.
In animal models, Dr. Satchi-Fainaro found that she was able to reverse the growth of bone cancer tumors. In a second study, she found that loading her polymer with the anti-cancer drug Taxol could inhibit tumor growth by 50%, compared to a Taxol dose that had no effect on tumor growth at all.
Water-soluble and inert, the carrier was found to leak from the blood only at the tumor site. Regular drug formulations diffuse through the whole body, attacking both normal and diseased organs. This makes Dr. Satchi-Fainaro's formulation more effective at targeting tumors. Her new drug also has applications in other diseases involving dysfunctional blood vessel growth, such as diabetes and arthritis.
American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Cancer Tumors Current Events and Cancer Tumors News RSSResearchers use drug-radiation combo to eradicate lung cancer
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have eliminated non-small cell lung (NSCL) cancer in mice by using an investigative drug called BEZ235 in combination with low-dose radiation.
New drug aims to 'seek and destroy' many types of cancer
A new drug designed to "seek and destroy" common cancers such as breast, prostate, endometrial, pancreatic, ovarian, skin and testicular cancers is being tested at TGen Clinical Research Services (TCRS) at Scottsdale Healthcare.
Novel 'on-off switch' mechanism stops cancer in its tracks
A tiny bit of genetic material with no previously known function may hold the key to stopping the spread of cancer, researchers at Yale School of Medicine and Sichuan University in Chengdu, China report in two papers in the September 7-11 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers identify new, cancer-causing role for protein
The mainstay immune system protein TRAF6 plays an unexpected, key role activating a cell signaling molecule that in mutant form is associated with cancer growth, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the Aug. 28 edition of Science.
Small peptide found to stop lung cancer tumor growth in mice
In new animal research done by investigators at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, scientists have discovered a treatment effective in mice at blocking the growth and shrinking the size of lung cancer tumors, one of the leading causes of cancer death in the world.
Taking the Needle's Sting Out of Diabetes
Found in 30% of all human cancer tumors, the Ras protein literally "drives cells crazy," says Prof. Yoel Kloog, the dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University. Prof. Kloog was the first in the world to develop an effective anti-Ras drug against pancreatic cancer, currently in clinical trials.
Study shows PET can measure effectiveness of novel breast cancer treatment
A new study published in the July issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine shows that positron emission tomography (PET) scans in mice can be used to determine whether a novel type of breast cancer treatment is working as intended.
I-SPY trial offers key insights into locally advanced breast cancer
Scientists are reporting two findings that could influence the way researchers screen for, treat and assess prognosis for women with locally advanced breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease.
Study: Why Some Prostate Cancer Returns
The majority of men who receive one of the standard treatments for localized prostate cancer - surgery or radiation therapy - have an excellent outcome.
Research reveals molecular pathway behind invasive prostate cancers
University of Cincinnati (UC) cancer and cell biologists have identified a new molecular pathway key to the development of invasive prostate cancers.
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