Science Editor Anoushka Sinha discusses recent cancer research done at King’s College London (KCL) to improve the efficacy of chemotherapy. The newly discovered drug has been found to be effective on mice and, with funding it is hoped that clinical trials will take place in coming years.
Macrophages are white blood cells which can surround the blood vessels within cancerous tumours and hinder the body’s response to chemotherapy. King’s College London professors in the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine (FoLSM) have found a way to get past these pesky macrophages and improve patients’ response to chemotherapy.
Professors James Spicer, Miraz Rahman, and James Arnold developed a new drug called KCL-HO-1i to target proteins within the macrophages. The scientists involved have launched a spinout company called Aethox Therapeutics to conduct this ongoing research. The medication would be taken as a daily tablet, alongside pre-existing cancer therapies.
The paper, originally published in the journal Science Translational Medicine concluded with findings that “KCL-HO-1i enhanced chemotherapy effects and sensitised tumours to treatment”.
Macrophages occupy up to 50% of a solid tumour’s mass, causing significant drug resistance. This can be extremely frustrating for cancer patients. Over half of all people diagnosed with cancer require chemotherapy, most commonly for cancer of the lungs, breasts and colorectal cancer. Macrophages have been detected in breast and lung cancer.
The World Cancer Research Fund reports that one in two people in the UK will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives, with breast cancer being the most common. When one does the maths, it is clear that macrophage research is vital.
Chemotherapy itself can be brutal, described as a ‘fine art’ which can ‘almost kill a child, but not quite’, although the process can be equally hard on adults. So when this intense treatment does not work, the mental load is no doubt immense.
The team at KCL hopes that by targeting enzymes within the macrophages with KCL-HO-1i, they can make real strides in cancer research.
“If human trials are successful, KCL-HO-1i could become a valuable companion drug to existing cancer therapies” – Professor Miraz Rahman
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