Breakthrough discovery in metastatic cancer treatment research

British scientists have just announced that they have found the "Achilles heel" of cancer, opening up treatment opportunities for cases that were thought to be "incurable" when cancer cells have spread throughout the body.

Cancer treatment. (Source: cancer.gov)

In a groundbreaking discovery, researchers found that all cancer cells carry a “flag” that the immune system can recognize regardless of how they have mutated. Until now, cancer treatments have often failed because the cancer evolves so rapidly and changes its structure so frequently that drugs become ineffective.

However, scientists at University College London (UCL) and Cancer Research UK have discovered that even as cancers mutate rapidly, they carry characteristic molecules that never change. These molecules are called antibodies – toxins that the immune system can recognise. Immune cells that fight these antibodies already exist in the body, but in too small a number to be effective.

From this discovery, scientists believe that it is possible to develop a new cancer treatment by collecting all immune cells and "cloning" them in the laboratory in large numbers and then returning them to the patient's body.

These immune cells, with their ability to locate "flags" - that is, the ability to recognize cancer cells regardless of how they have mutated - will attack and destroy these diseased cells even when they have spread throughout the body.

Professor Peter Johnson of Cancer Research UK said the research “fills in the gaps” in why some previous cancer treatments don’t work. He also said the research gave them important insights into developing new cancer treatments that use a patient’s own immune system.

Meanwhile, Professor Charles Swanton, co-author of the study from the UCL Cancer Institute, said the new approach to cancer treatment could significantly improve survival rates for cancer patients.

This groundbreaking research was published in the latest issue of Science magazine./.

According to VIETNAM+