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Scientists have devised a special type of drug that helps the body to eat and destroy cancer cells.
Treatment stimulates the action of white blood cells, called macrophages, that the immune system uses to engulf unwanted invaders.
Tests on mice showed that the therapy worked for aggressive breast and skin tumors, reports Nature Biomedical Engineering.
The US team behind the study hopes to begin testing on humans in a few years.
The drug they've designed already has a license which they say should speed up the approval process.
It is a "supramolecule" – a drug built from component molecules that fit together as building blocks.
Treatments that target the immune system to fight cancer are a growing area of research that many scientists around the world are studying
This last work involves a devouring or "phagocytic" immune cell called macrophage
]. Eating cancer
Macrophages are already good at fighting bacterial and viral infections because they can recognize and attack these "alien" invaders.
But they are not very effective at fighting cancer, because tumors grow from our own cells and have smart mechanisms to protect against immune attacks.
Dr. Ashish Kulkarni and his colleagues at Brigham and Women's Harvard Hospital study their work in two ways.
First, it prevents cancer cells from hiding and sending signals "do not eat me" to macrophages. Second, it prevents the tumor from telling macrophages to become docile.
Supramolecular therapy appeared to prevent cancer from growing and spreading in mice tested.
The researchers predict that it could be used with other cancer treatments such as checkpoint inhibitors.
Carl Alexander of Cancer Research UK, said: "It is promising to see another new approach. More work is now needed to show that this approach could be used to treat cancer patients."
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