New Drug Could Kill Resistant Cancer Cells
Cancer stem cells are believed to be the driving force behind a tumor’s growth. It is also believed that the resistance of cancer stem cells is one of the major hurdles in formulating effective cancer treatment programs.
Now, researchers report that they have identified drugs that are specifically designed to kill these cancer stem cells.
Lead researcher, Piyush Gupta of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Broad Institute, suggests that cancer stem cells are quite likely the cells responsible for cancer recurrences following treatment. As such, the promise of drugs that directly kill these kinds of cells would mean that cancer could one day be much easier to cure.
From the outset, the goal of Gupta’s team was to identify chemical compounds that specifically attacked cancer stem cells. Sifting through 16,000 contenders, they eventually found success via a chemical called salinomycin.
In tests performed on lab rats, the team found that salinomycin was 100 times more effective in killing breast cancer stem cells than paclitaxel, a common chemo drug currently in use.
While the news is promising, the team stresses that salinomycin may or may not lead to effective cancer treatment. Other compounds geared towards killing cancer stem cells have yet to be tested, and the safety of salinomycin in humans is unknown. As such, the next step in research involves additional tests in lab mice to determine if clinical trials among humans are safe enough to conduct.
If successful, Dr. Gupta foresees a future cancer treatment regimen that includes dual therapies – traditional chemotherapy that wipes out the majority of tumor cells, and drug treatment that kills resistant strains of cancer stem cells.
Regardless of the safety and effectiveness of salinomycin, the discovery provides researchers with a new avenue of research that could lead to additional insights into cancer treatment in the future.
Resources:
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticN…
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=2…

