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A "Trojan horse" drug that attacks tumor cells from the inside could offer new hope to cancer patients with few options available, the researchers say.
The new treatment has generated promising results in people with six different types of cancer, including cancers of the cervix, bladder, ovarian and lung, according to the results of the first trials published in the newspaper The Lancet Oncology.
The drug – tisotumab vedotin (TV) – was tested on patients with advanced cancer who no longer responded to standard treatments and caused the narrowing or stopping of some tumors growth.
The research was conducted by a team from the Institute of Cancer Research London and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.
"This treatment is so exciting that its mechanism of action is completely new. It acts as a Trojan horse to get into the cancer cells and kill them from the inside, "said Principal Professor Johann de Bono.
"Our first study showed that it could potentially treat a large number of cancer types, especially those with very low survival rates.
"The television has manageable side effects, and we found good responses in patients of our trial, all with advanced-stage cancer, who had been heavily pre-treated with other drugs and short-lived. d & # 39; options. "
The trial involved nearly 150 patients with different types of drug-resistant cancer.
More than a quarter of patients with bladder cancer (27%) and 26.5% of cervical cancer responded to treatment.
Tumors of 13% of people with oesophageal cancer, 13% of non-small cell lung cancer and 7% of cancer of the lungs. endometrium have also decreased or stopped growing.
The study found that this response lasted an average of 5.7 months, but up to 9.5 months in some patients.
Television treatment consists of a toxic drug attached to an antibody and designed to target a receptor, present at high concentrations on the surface of many cancer cells, called tissue factor.
When it binds to tissue factor, the drug can enter the inside of the cancer cells to kill them from the inside.
The results mean that it is currently being tested in other types of cancer, including the intestine and the pancreas, and that other cervical cancer trials are also underway .
Professor Paul Workman, Chief Executive Officer of the ICR, said: "We have seen major breakthroughs against cancer in recent decades, but many types of tumors remain very difficult to treat once the cancer has started to spread.
"We are in desperate need of innovative treatments like this one that can fight cancer in new ways and remain effective even against tumors that have become resistant to conventional treatments."
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