Immunotherapies and biomarker findings are revolutionizing the fight against tumors
The pandemic has highlighted the importance of research and science. Vaccines against covid save thousands of lives every day because they make the effects of the virus milder. With the Cancer the same happens. Each discovery is a new step for enlarge the life of the sick, although neither an effective vaccine against cancer cells nor a definitive cure is yet in sight.
However, in recent years there have been two revolutionsone in the form of immunotherapy and the other through the findings around the biomarkers, the biological characteristics of cells, which have allowed the approval of new drugs. On World Cancer Day, which is celebrated this Friday, these are the five most hopeful news of the last year.
A new marker against pancreatic cancer
This same month, the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (Imim) and the Barcelona Biomedicine Research Institute (IIBB-CSIC-Idibaps) have reported that they have found a new bookmark that could detect breast cancer pancreasone of the most lethal, in its initial stages with a simple blood test.
Researchers have shown that the receptor tyrosine kinase AXL, a protein present on the surface of cells, which is not usually absent in normal cells, is markedly increased in certain types of tumors, such as those of the pancreas.
The next step is start a study to analyze the results in a large group of patients and, if the discovery is validated, put it into clinical practice immediately, since there is no biomarker for the early diagnosis of this type of tumors.
The drug that slows down metastatic breast cancer
The International Breast Cancer Center (IBCC) of Barcelona has coordinated the international trial of a drug what do you get curb metastatic breast cancer in 76% of cases and that the tumor disappears in 16%.
It is a treatment that combines a antibody with chemotherapy and that it acts as a “Trojan horse”, passing through the cell and releasing the chemotherapy there, as explained by oncologist Javier Cortés in an interview in EL PERIÓDICO. In his opinion, they are the “most spectacular results in history against breast cancer” and open the door to the chronification of the disease. the drug it’s already approved preliminary and can be administered in Spain.
The hopeful immunotherapies
The CAR-T immunotherapies They consist of genetically modifying the T lymphocytes in the blood of each patient in the laboratory and re-administering them to the patient so that they act against various types of cancer: leukemia acute lymphoblastic, B-cell lymphoma and multiple myeloma. They were first administered a decade ago to a couple of seriously ill leukemia patients in the US and have kept cancer at bay over the years, the journal Nature recently published.
In Spain, the Ministry of Health finances several therapies, two of them public, developed by the Hospital Clínic. And the success they are having opens the door to using CAR-T against other types of cancer.
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The role of palmitic acid in metastasis
Researchers at the IRB in Barcelona have discovered that the fat molecule palmitic acid, the main component of Palm oil but also present in dairy products, meats or sausages, it is one of the main causes of metastasis.
According to the researcher Salvador Aznar-Benitah, this discovery only affects the metastasis since primary tumors need fat but do not have the dependence that metastatic cells show towards the palmitic acid, which is one of their weaknesses because if they are prevented from ingesting it, they cannot survive. Even so, there is still a long way to go before this research is put into clinical practice.
The collagen that wakes up the cells
The research department at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York has discovered that cancer cells remain asleep and inactive for years after causing a tumor because they secrete a type of collagen called type III collagen and they only become malignant when the levels of that collagen that surrounds them drop.
According to the essay published in ‘Nature Cancer’, if the environment of these cells is enriched with this type of collagen, they can be force continue inactivethus preventing them from generating metastases or a new tumor.