Halting the march of cancer
Added: (Sun Sep 16 2001)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
Cancer remains the second most common cause of death in the developed world claiming up to 25% of all deaths in the US. As a result the market for treatments is worth in excess of US$16 billion.
Cancer is mostly controllable while confined to a specific area of the body but once it has metastasised to distant locations the clinical situation worsens dramatically. The development of effective anti-metastatic drugs is therefore expected to herald a new era in oncology.
According to a DiscoveryDossier published this week by the drug development consultants, LeadDiscovery, this era may be upon us.
Researchers at McGill University in Canada have been able to succesfuly target a key protein involved in many changes associated with metastasis, the insulin-like growth factor I receptor, IGF-IR.
IGF-IR appears to play a crucial role in the progression of some of the most common cancers including breast, lung and colorectal cancer as well as other cancers such as glioblastoma.
IGF-IR is present on the surface of cancer cells and once it docks with IGF-I a chain of events is initiated. Firstly, a variety of cellular changes occur hastening the development of metastasis and secondly IGF-IR enters cells still docked to its ligand. IGF-IR then cycles back to the cell surface to continue its deadly role but only after enzymes within the cell have caused it to separate from IGF-I.
Dr Brodt and her colleagues at McGill have been engaged in finding novel ways of preventing IGF-IR cycling back to the surface of cancer cells. Recently they identified a series of enzymes known as cathepsins that cause IGF-I to split from IGF-IR. Blocking this process by using specific drugs or alternatively molecules known as oligonucleotides had dramatic effects on the development of cancer. Breast and lung cancer cells grew more slowly and lost their ability to produce enzymes that allow them to eat their way through tissue surrounding tumors. Lung cancer cells were unable to move to the liver, a common and lethal site of metastasis.
According to LeadDiscovery consultants "blocking cathepsins appears to offer an excellent strategy for slowing the progression of cancer. Although at early stages of development we believe that Dr Brodt has all the necessary tools to turn this research into future drugs. We hope that one of the many companies involved in cancer research will help hasten this development. McGill University has an excellent track record in partnering industry and we believe that by pooling the resources of Dr Brodt, the office of Technology Transfer at McGill and those of industry an exciting new weapon in our fight against cancer will soon emerge".
For information on in-depth analyses of this and related work visit the LeadDiscovery website at http://www.leaddiscovery.co.uk/target-discovery/discoverydossiers.html
LeadDiscovery is a leading Sussex based firm of drug discovery, development and commercialisation consultants whose aim is to combine a background in the pharmaceutical industry with an internet platform to help academic and biotech based research groups to exploit their technology.