A promising "Trojan horse" drug against incurable cancers

A new anti-cancer drug using a "Trojan horse" approach to enter cancer cells and destroy them from within has shown promising results for six different types of cancer.

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The new treatment has significantly improved the survival of a minority of cancer patients that other drugs had not treated.

A team of researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research in London and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust led a Phase I / II clinical trial of nearly 150 patients with different types of cancer who no longer responded to treatment clbadics.

As reported in Lancet Oncology, the new treatment has reduced or stopped tumors in a quarter of patients with cancer of the cervix or the bladder and in nearly 15% of patients with cancer of the uterus or bladder lung or ovarian.

The new drug consists of an antibody with an anticancer agent attached to its tail. The antibody binds to the receptors present on the surface of the cancer cells and then attracts the chemotherapy agent to the interior.

What's really exciting about this treatment is that its mechanism of action is completely new: it acts like a Trojan horse that sneaks into cancer cells and kills them from within. "

Johann de Bono, lead author

The researchers found that tumors contracted or stopped growing in 27.0% of bladder cancer cases, 26.5% of cervical lesions, 14% of ovaries, 13% of esophagus, 13% non-small cell lungs and 7% of the endometrium.

The responses to treatment lasted on average 5.7 months and in some cases up to 9.5 months.

"Our first study showed that it could potentially treat many types of cancer, especially those with very low survival rates," Bono says.

The results have been so convincing that the drug is currently being tested in trials on other cancers, including the pancreas, intestines, head and neck. It is also being tested as a second-line treatment for cervical cancer in a Phase II trial.

"We have already started additional trials of this new drug in different types of tumors and as a second-line treatment for cervical cancer, where response rates were particularly high. We are also developing a test to select the patients most likely to respond, "says de Bono.

The director general of the Cancer Institute, Paul Workman, said that it was exciting to see the potential that this drug has shown for a range of cancers difficult to treat:

I look forward to seeing the progress at the clinic and hope that it will benefit patients who currently have no treatment options. "

Paul Workman, Executive Director, ICR