Important advance in cancer treatment discovered

SCIENTISTS HAVE discovered a process to trigger the death of cancer cells that they believe could be more effective than current methods.

The new method of killing cancer cells – called Caspase Independent Cell Death (CICD) – led to the complete eradication of tumours in experimental models.

Currently most anti-cancer therapies, including chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy, work by killing cancer cells through a process called apoptosis, which activates proteins called caspases, leading to cell death.

However in apoptosis, current therapies often fail to kill all of the cancer cells, leading to disease recurring when the survivors start to grow again.

It can also have unwanted side effects that may even promote cancer.

The University of Glasgow scientists wanted to develop a way to improve therapy that induces cancer cell killing while also mitigating unwanted toxicity.

Dr Stephen Tait, Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute, Institute of Cancer Sciences, said: “Our research found that triggering Caspase-Independent Cell Death (CICD), but not apoptosis, often led to complete tumour regression.

“Especially under conditions of partial therapeutic response, as our experiments mimic, our data suggests that triggering tumour-specific CICD, rather than apoptosis, may be a more effective way to treat cancer.”

The research paper, ‘Mitochondrial permeabilization engages NF-kB-dependent anti-tumour activity under caspase deficiency’, is published in Nature Cell Biology.

The paper was majority funded by Cancer Research UK.