During preclinical testing by scientists at the nonprofit Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, the new combination showed tumor regression.
Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological cancer, but its survival rate is low because it is naturally resistant to chemotherapy, and it is difficult to fight against it no matter where it is in the body.
Cancer tends to spread through the peritoneal fluid in the abdominal cavity around the stomach and intestines, and the peritoneum is naturally immunosuppressive, limiting the body’s response to the tumor.
To fight difficult cancers, Dr. Nan Chan says: And his collaborators turned to a possible solution almost a century ago.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, New York surgeon William B. Corey achieved cure rates of over 10% for some cancers by injecting patients with dead pathogens. Scientists later reasoned that this anti-cancer effect was the result of the immune system’s activation of bone marrow cells (cells found in large numbers in the peritoneal cavity) that, when activated, can mount a cancer-killing response. did.
Based on this concept, Zhang’s team designed an approach to specifically activate bone marrow cells in the peritoneal cavity through combined treatment with beta-glucan and interferon gamma (IFNγ), a pathogen-derived activator of bone marrow cells. I did.
Preliminary reports suggest that this approach may reverse peritumoral immunosuppression and lead to positive outcomes.
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Their discovery is Published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine confirmed that this combination therapy was effective when tested in preclinical laboratory models. After treating a metastatic ovarian cancer model with both beta-glucan and IFNγ, total tumor burden was “significantly reduced” compared to controls.
Disease recovery was also consistent in chemotherapy-resistant strains of ovarian cancer that the team modeled.
Supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, the research team announced their new approach on Nov. 21, saying their findings for treating ovarian cancer “shrink tumors and improve survival rates while at the same time “It makes the tumor more susceptible to chemotherapy.”
“Our study opens the door to potentially new ways to treat particularly aggressive cancers,” said Dr. Brenna Murphy, lead author of the paper. “Ovarian cancer is notoriously resistant to treatment, but we have shown at the preclinical level that our treatment overcomes that resistance.”
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“This is the first time researchers have been able to indirectly target ovarian cancer cells in peritoneal fluid by inducing an immune response in a preclinical model.” Mr. Zhang said.assistant professor in the Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Program at the Wistar Institute.
“We look forward to furthering this research, particularly our findings regarding the role of IL27, so that we can continue to identify other strategies to improve this novel anti-ovarian cancer approach.”
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