Antibiotic treatment may slow down the lymphoma of the skin

A new study from the Skin Immunology Research Center of the LEO Foundation of the University of Copenhagen shows, surprisingly, that antibiotics inhibit skin cancer in patients with a rare type of lymphoma.

Many patients with rare lymphoma cancer, CTCL, contract staph infections in the skin. CTL is a cancer of the T cells of the immune system, which is manifested in the skin. As a result, the patient's immune system is weakened and the skin is less resistant to bacteria.

In a new study, researchers from the Skin Immunology Research Center of the LEO Foundation of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Medical Sciences of the University of Copenhagen have demonstrated, in collaboration with Aarhus University Hospitals and Zealand and Aarhus, that aggressive antibiotic treatments inhibit staphylococcal bacteria, but also cancer cells. The number of cancer cells is reduced and the cancer is significantly reduced for some time in patients with severe skin inflammation.

During a staph infection, the body's healthy immune cells are functioning at full speed. They produce growth substances called cytokines, which are used to make the immune system work. Cancer cells hang on to growth substances and use them to accelerate their own growth. The results of the research show for the first time that antibiotic treatment can slow down this process.

When we inhibit staphylococcal bacteria with antibiotics, we simultaneously eliminate the activation of immune cells. This means that they do not produce as many cytokines and that, therefore, cancer cells can not get the extra "fuel". As a result, growth of cancer cells is prevented as rapidly as they were during bacterial attack. This discovery is revolutionary because it is the first time we see this link between bacteria and cancer cells in patients. "

Professor Niels Ødum, LEO Foundation Skin Immunology Research Center

This discovery is the result of many years of research in which researchers conducted molecular studies and laboratory tests, collected tissue samples from skin and blood, and conducted clinical studies on carefully selected patients.

Eager to find new treatments

Until now, antibiotics have been administered to CTL patients with skin infections because they feared that the infection would re-appear as antibiotic-resistant staphylococci after the treatment. The researchers behind the discovery believe that the new findings will change that.

"We have already seen that antibiotics had a positive effect on some of these patients, but we have never studied what it really does for cancer. Our results show that it may be worth giving this treatment to patients with staphylococci on the skin because it inhibits cancer while possibly reducing the risk of new infections, "says Niels Ødum.

It is still unclear whether new knowledge can be transferred to other types of cancer. For researchers at the LEO Foundation's Skin Immunology Research Center, the next step is to take a closer look at the link between cancer and bacteria.

"We do not know if this discovery is only valid for lymphoma. We see it particularly in this type of cancer because it is a cancer of the immune system. Cancer cells already "understand" the signals that immune cells send. When the immune cells are put to work, so are the cancer cells. Anyway, it is very interesting and relevant to take a closer look at the interaction between bacteria and cancer, which we see here, "says Niels Ødum.

"The next step will be the development of new treatments that only target" bad "bacteria, without harming the" good "bacteria, which protect the skin," he said.