NEW GENE THERAPY CAN STOP CANCER IN ITS TRACKS

SCIENTISTS have used a radical new technique to stop cancer cells spreading.

A series of groundbreaking experiments showed it was possible to prevent the spread of deadly tumours.

Researchers made the breakthrough by halting a process called autophagy, which cells use to recycle themselves.

By doing this they stopped metastasis, the movement of the disease, which causes 90 per cent of cancer deaths.

During laboratory tests on mice, scientists were able to stop the spread by removing two key genes, Atg5 and Atg7.

They noticed that genetically altered cells behaved differently from metastatic breast cancer cells. The metastatic cells were active and moved but altered cells stayed still.

When gene-altered cancer cells were injected into rodents they multiplied to form tumours but, crucially, could not spread.

This type of approach could make it easier for surgeons to remove tumours in one piece.

Specialists at the University of Chicago, where the experiments took place, think cancer stays still because of abnormally large “focal adhesions’ – structures on the edge of the cell that help anchor them.

Autophagy undoes the focal adhesion, allowing the cancer cell to break free from the tumour. When this is blocked, the tumour cannot spread because adhesions root the cells in place.

The malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine is currently being tested as an agent to slow tumour growth.

Speaking in the journal Cell Reports, Associate Professor Kay Macleod said: “This study adds to a growing body of work linking autophagy to tumour cell mobility, invasion and metastasis. These studies highlight the potential utility of inhibiting autophagy to block tumour metastasis.”

Harder

Nell Barrie, of Cancer Research UK, said: “When cancer has spread it’s much harder to treat, so understanding how cancer cells are able to move around the body is a crucial area of research.

“This study suggests existing drugs might be able to stop a ‘recycling’ process inside cancer cells that helps them to move.

“It’s an interesting approach that is in its very early stages and will need to be tested further in the lab and in clinical trials.” Meanwhile, researchers have announced the expansion of a scheme to collect blood and tissue samples from people who die of cancer.

The study, funded by Cancer Research UK, will collect postmortem samples from up to 500 patients.

Doctors will invite terminally ill patients – most of whom are taking part in clinical trials – to donate samples, giving researchers a timeline of the biological changes in cancer from diagnosis to death.

Experts say it is crucial in speeding up research, particularly into lung cancer, which often spreads to the brain because samples cannot be taken when patients are alive.

There are about 352,000 new cases of cancer each year in the UK and about 162,000 deaths. Medical experts say that 42 per cent of cases are preventable.