Leukaemia pill could help fight other types of cancer: Drug may also stop disease returning by restricting tumour growth

  • Drug aids battle against disease by boosting sufferer's immune system
  • Previously used to tackle leukaemia following extremely successful trials
  • After further tests, pills could be rolled out to those hit by other cancers
  • Research found drug prevents disease from spreading and restricts tumours

By Tania Steere

Published: 20:42 EST, 11 June 2014 | Updated: 04:54 EST, 12 June 2014

Pills previously used to treat leukaemia could now be used to tackle other cancers. File photo

Pills previously used to treat leukaemia could now be used to tackle other cancers. File photo

An immune system-boosting pill used to treat leukaemia could help fight other cancers, new research has revealed.

Scientists were surprised to discover the inhibitor drugs were also effective against many other types of cancer.

As a leukaemia treatment, the pills were so successful in trials that those taking placebos were immediately switched to the real drug for ethical reasons.

But this is the first time the drugs have been tested on other types of cancer.

The study, published in the journal Nature and led by British scientists, provides the first evidence that such drugs can significantly restrict tumour growth and spread, and reduce the chances of relapse across a broad range of cancers.

Researchers from University College London, the Babraham Institute, Cambridge, and Queen Mary University of London, worked with scientists from Genentech, South San Francisco, to find that the drugs help boost the body's immune system to kill tumour cells.

Cancer suppresses immunity by producing an enzyme called p110, which makes it difficult for the body to fight the disease.

These drugs work by inhibiting that enzyme, allowing the body's own defences to fight the cancer more effectively.

Research revealed that using the inhibitor drugs in mice significantly increased cancer survival rates across a broad range of tumours.

 

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For example, mice in which the enzyme was blocked survived breast cancer for almost twice as long as mice with active p110. Their cancers also spread significantly less, with far fewer and smaller tumours developing.

Survival after surgical removal of primary breast cancer tumours was also vastly improved, which has important clinical implications for stopping breast cancer from returning following surgery.

Tests using the drug suggest it may boost survival rates after surgery to remove breast cancer tumours

Tests using the drug suggest it may boost survival rates after surgery to remove breast cancer tumours

The researchers' figures also show that following inhibition of the enzyme, the immune system could develop an effective memory response to completely fight off the cancer.

Study co-leader Professor Bart Vanhaesebroeck, of the UCL Cancer Institute and who first discovered the enzyme in 1997, said: 'Our study shows that p110 inhibitors have the potential to offer effective immunity to many types of cancer by unleashing the body's own immune response.
'p110 is highly expressed and important in white blood cells, called 'leukocytes'.

'Given that leukaemias are the result of leukocytes becoming cancerous, they are a natural target for p110 inhibitors.

'Now, we have shown that blocking p110 also has the remarkable effect of boosting the body's immune response against leukaemias as well as other cancers.'

The research was funded by Cancer Research UK, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Wellcome Trust.

Professor Nic Jones, Cancer Research UK's chief scientist and director of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre, said: 'Treatments that train the immune system to recognise and kill cancer cells are showing huge promise in several types of cancer.

'This new finding, although only at an early stage, offers the potential to develop more treatments that can do this in many more cancers, including ones that have real need for more effective treatments such as pancreatic cancer.

'If the findings hold true in cancer patients this could make a big difference to many of them. The good news is that because the drugs used in this study are already being used in the clinic, we could see rapid translation of this research into patient benefit.'

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Great my immune system doesn't need increasing that's what's caused the problem in the first place, irony is the stuff I have to inject has a 10% increased chance of cancer ...

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CANCER is big business. Hospitals, doctors, scientist. BIG PHARM!!!! You're life means nothing to them, especial if your poor.

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The NHS has done a lot to protect MY health, thank you. One tumor removed and chemo drugs to stop future problems.

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Research into immuntherapy is being conducted at many universities in the UK. The results all appear staggeringly good. So why does the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (N.I.C.E.) fail to roll these treatments out wholesale?? Is it because four million cancer research workers (worldwide) will suddenly find themselves out of work?? Or because the eighty UK oncologists will have too much spare time to play golf. Ladies and gentlemen, the cure for most cancers has been found; and that cure lies with immunotherapy. So are N.I.C.E. nice or nasty.

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Sadly we keep hearing about these wonder drugs but they never get released as cancer is a huge revenue generator for pharmaceutical companies sad but true

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We keep hearing about all these wonder drugs which could save thousands of live but fail to see the NHS providing them, why?

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Development of such treatments takes a long time which is an unfortuate reality. New drugs are being trialed all the time but this is just part of a long process of approval. This is unfortunate for those current sufferers who aren't able to participate in trials that show success like this. However, DM readers would be the first to howl if even an originally promising treatment turned out to have unfortunate side-effects after more widespread use.

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As a cancer victim, l am constantly beguiled by these half educated DM so-called 'science' journalists (sic!) who keep telling us that this and that 'wonder drug' 'could' do this and that. Desperate people need answers now - not something that just 'might perhaps' happen twenty odd years later... Also the nhs is ruled by the nasty NICE who ban anything expensive and by the greed-driven pharma multinationals who have no interest in finding cures because there's no money in it for them.

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RW, the science writers at the Daily Maul are the best in their field, useless science writing. They have to be the most science ignorant pseudo journalists ever to put fingers to a keyboard. They are stupid at best

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Fine. Cures/Solutions for everything that ails us. So why are they not also concentrating on Contraception? These cures are resulting in the massive increase in population, which has worse, longer lasting effects!

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This drug has been used to treat GIST Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumour.

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We keep seeing and hearing of new drugs but do we get to use them.

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Yes, we do. That (along with better diagnosis) why cancer survival rates are constantly improving.

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