Scientists at Cancer Research UK have revealed
a possible new treatment for a common and aggressive form of lung
cancer.
The team at the charity's London Research
Institute (now part of the Francis Crick Institute),
studying mice, found that combining a drug currently used for
treating a heart condition with another medicine that treats a bone
marrow cancer, could be used to stop tumours in non-small cell lung
cancer.
The researchers looked for weaknesses in a
gene called Ras, which goes wrong because of smoking. They found
that faulty Ras genes rely on a second gene known as GATA2 to
create tumours. The scientists found that the effect of GATA2 can
be stopped in mice with non-small cell lung cancer by using a
combination of drugs: Bortezomib (Velcade) - a drug for malignant
myeloma, and Fasudil - used to treat Pulmonary Hypertension.
When the team looked at organs before and
after treatment, they found the drugs had reduced the proportion of
the lungs covered by tumours by around 99 per cent.
Dr Julian Downward, lead author from Cancer
Research UK's London Research Institute, said: "The results we saw
in our initial studies were extremely promising. It's very unusual
to see such a striking effect - an organ affected by cancer almost
completely cleared of the disease.
"It's too early to say whether this
combination of drugs will be effective in patients with lung cancer
but plans are underway already to test this theory in a clinical
trial.
"If the trial is successful, it will be an
extremely exciting step forward in the treatment of lung cancer,
and potentially other types of cancer too.
"Ras is one of the most important genes in
cancer, and when it goes wrong it can cause extremely aggressive
cancers. Nearly a quarter of all cases of cancer are driven by
faulty Ras proteins. And in some types of cancer - notably
pancreatic cancer - it's more like nine out of 10 cases.
"So far we've just studied mice with lung
cancer caused by faulty Ras. But by targeting the biology behind
Ras, this combination of drugs holds the potential to treat a wider
range of cancers."