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 Britain's Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), one of the world's top
cancer centers, said on Friday its initiative was the first to have
at its heart the target of overcoming cancer evolution and drug
resistance.
In the same way that bacteria evolve resistance to antibiotics,
cancer cells also change to evade the medicines used to fight them,
leading to "survival of the nastiest".
As a result, most cancer drugs eventually stop working, causing
patients to relapse.
There are signs, however, that drugs can be developed to tackle this
problem, while advances in immunotherapy may also make it possible
to direct patients' immune systems to adapt in response to cancer
changes.
Over the next five years, the ICR aims to discover at least one new
drug targeting a novel evolutionary mechanism and a new
immunotherapy.
While doctors have known about cancer drug resistance for decades,
it is only now, with advances in genetics and the development of
ultra-fast DNA sequencing, that scientists are unraveling the
factors driving the process.
"We now have an incredibly precise understanding of the genetic
basis for resistance," said ICR Chief Executive Paul Workman.
"Over the next five years we will focus all our efforts on
overcoming this problem ... we need researchers around the world to
embrace the challenge."
Already an experimental medicine inhibiting the protein Hsp90, which
cancer cells use to protect themselves from stress, has shown
encouraging results in clinical trials. ICR scientists are also
working on an even more important controller of the stress response
known as HSF1.
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Workman said experiments on HSF1 were still at an early stage but
scientists were close to selecting a drug candidate.
The end result is likely be the development of a number of
combination treatments to stop cancer evolving, similar to the drug
cocktails used to control HIV or tuberculosis.
In addition to understanding biology, a large part of the research
effort will be driven by "big data", through the use of mathematical
models to predict the path of cancer evolution from tumor samples.
Tapping into the terabytes of data thrown up by analyzing the
genetic profiles of tumors is an increasing focus of cancer research
worldwide. It is also a central plank of U.S. Vice President Joe
Biden's "moonshot" initiative aimed at finding cures for cancer.
(Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
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