SCIENTISTS say they are onto a “promising” new treatment for leukaemia blood cancer which has not seen major progress for over 30 years.
They reckon they can knock out oxygen sensors that the cancer cells use to survive and multiply.
Lab trials on mice and human cells suggested this could stop acute myeloid leukaemia in its tracks – and even one day work for other cancer types.
AML is an aggressive form of the blood cancer that affects 3,000 Brits every year and causes 2,700 deaths.
Patients normally receive chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants but these can have serious side effects and often do not work.
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Experts call it a “largely incurable disease” and only around a third of patients survive for a year or more after their diagnosis.
We hope this could pave the way to a new era of treatments
Professor Kamil Kranc
Professor Kamil Kranc, study leader at The Institute of Cancer Research in London, said: “Therapy for acute myeloid leukaemia has barely changed in several decades.
“There is a huge need to discover better treatments for this aggressive disease.
“We’ve shown for the first time that targeting the ways that our cells use to respond to oxygen levels could provide a new way to treat leukaemia, without impacting the normal production of blood cells within the bone marrow.
“We’re hopeful this research will pave the way towards a new era of treatments.
“We’d also like to explore whether these therapies could be beneficial for solid tumours.”
The study, in the journal Nature Cancer, tested turning off enzymes called hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylases (PHDs) that help cancer cells to grow when they sense oxygen.
Existing drugs or new ones could be used
The team, including Oxford University and Cancer Research UK, were “extremely excited” to prove that doing so destroyed the tumour cells.
They think it can be done with existing drugs used to treat the blood disorder anaemia, which would be cheaper and easier than the high-tech gene editing used in the study.
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But the lab has also invented its own new drug to get the job done with fewer side effects.
Prof Kristian Helin, chief of the Institute of Cancer Research, said: “This work provides important insights into the way cancer uses signals within the body – such as those relating to oxygen levels – to grow and develop.
“I look forward to seeing this research progress into clinical trials.”