Source: Thailand Medical News Nov 21, 2019 5 years, 1 day, 22 hours, 50 minutes ago
Thailand Cancer
A recent study by A QIMR Berghofer, a medical research institute in Queensland, Australia has identified how a newly approved
blood cancer drug works and found the treatment is better than other drugs at targeting
cancer stem cells while causing minimal damage to healthy cells.
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In mid-2018, the long-acting form of the drug Interferon alpha was approved for use in Australia to treat patients with a type of
blood cancer,
Polycythaemia vera (PV), in which there is an accumulation of red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets in the patient's blood.
Dr Steven Lane, an Associate Professor who is the head of QIMR Berghofer's Cancer Program and a Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital clinical hematologist told
Thailand Medical
News that the study identified how the long-acting form of Interferon alpha worked to kill off
blood cancer stem cells in mice.
The study also found the long-acting versions of the drug were the most effective in controlling
cancer.
Although long-acting Interferon alpha is available for use in Australia, an ultra-long-acting version of the drug is not an approved treatment option. It is approved for use in Europe.
Typically, Interferon alpha works by waking up the
cancer stem cells that may be lying dormant in the bone marrow and forcing them to proliferate. As that happens, the genetic material in the
cancer stem cells is damaged and they are depleted over time.
Elimination of the
cancer stem cells is necessary to achieve long-term remission of PV or a cure.
Dr Lane said the study importantly found long-acting Interferon alpha was more toxic on
cancer cells than on healthy cells."This has not been shown before and explains why it works so well. We found
cancer cells are more susceptible to long-acting Interferon alpha than normal cells and are more likely to sustain DNA damage and die off, allowing healthy cells to take over again." he said.
Dr Lane added, "A lot of treatments are toxic to both
cancer cells and normal cells, which makes it harder on patients. This study on mice shows for the first time that long-acting Interferon alpha's effects are much more pronounced on
cancer cells, which means it could be less harmful to patients. It also found the longer the drug was active in the body, the more effective it was at killing
cancer cells.These results provide evidence to support making the ultra-long-acting versions of the drug available for Australian patients with rare blood
cancers.”
“Researchers need to keep working to refine the best treatments based on a thorough understanding of how the drugs work, and that's why we're now collecting samples from humans who are being treated with long-acting Interferon alpha.We know long-a
cting Interferon alpha is very effective in this disease and it needs to be administered over about six months, because you won't see the effects after just one or two doses."he further added.
Dr Lane said his team would now be looking at ways to combine the use of long-acting Interferon alpha with other treatments to try to find the best treatment options for patients with PV. He said there was also the possibility that ultra-long acting Interferon alpha could be suitable for treating other kinds of
blood cancers, including
leukemia, but that would require further study.
Dr Lane and his team will be initiating a series of approved clinical trials in early 2020.
Reference: Rebecca J. Austin et al. Distinct effects of ruxolitinib and interferon-alpha on murine JAK2V617F myeloproliferative neoplasm hematopoietic stem cell populations, Leukemia (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41375-019-0638-y
