Even with surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and/or gene-targeted therapy (such as cetuximab), the five-year survival rate for locally advanced head and neck cancer is only 46%. Usually, the treatment is good at first, but the development of cancer can lead to drug resistance.
Researchers at the University of Colorado Cancer Center have discovered that a pair of genes related to early brain development, but silence in healthy adult tissues causes resistance in tumor samples. The gene is EphB4 and the accompanying gene is ephrin-B2. Both genes will rise after the patient fails treatment, so you can target them to see if it is effective.
To this end, they used tumor tissue from relapsed patients to grow in mice. The mice were then divided into treatment groups, some of which received chemotherapy cisplatin, some received the anti-EGFR drug cetuximab, and some received radiation treatment alone or in addition to these treatments. Add an experimental EphB4-ephrin-B2 inhibitor treatment to a separate cohort for each group.
I cisplatin-gruppen var tumorforbruget af ny hæmmerterapi ikke tydeligt, men tilsætningen af EphB4-ephrin-B2-hæmmer til EGFR-hæmmerens cetuximab-behandling reducerede tumorstørrelsen signifikant, og der var mere god samlet overlevelsesrate. Forskerne mener, at EGFR og EphB4-ephrin-B2 kan bruges som alternative veje.
EphB4-ephrin-B2-hæmmere gennemgår i øjeblikket kliniske forsøg med andre kræftformer. Vores forskning viser, at det med succes kan bruges i kombination med EGFR-hæmmere til behandling af avanceret hoved- og halscancer. Prediktor for EphB4-ephrin-B2 kan parres med tumorpatienter, der viser høje niveauer af disse proteiner.
