There will soon be a pill to cure all cancers

British scientists have announced the discovery of a drug that can treat and prevent all cancers.

British newspaper Telegraph reported on June 12 that British scientists have just announced in Nature magazine that they have discovered a drug that can fight all cancers and prevent the disease from recurring by strengthening the body's natural immune system.

Delta inhibitors have long been known to be beneficial for patients with leukaemia, and now scientists at University College London (UCL) and the Babraham Institute at Cambridge University have found that they are also effective against a range of other cancers, including lung, pancreatic, skin and breast. They come in capsule form, making them easy to swallow.

Cancer suppresses the immune system by producing an enzyme called “p110delta”; this enzyme hides itself, making it difficult for the human body to fight the disease. The new drug “inhibits” the enzyme, allowing the immune system to detect and attack tumor cells.

The added benefit of the drug is that once the body has "learned" how to fight cancer, it has an innate immune system that prevents the disease from ever coming back, unlike when cancer is killed with chemotherapy.

Although the new research was conducted on mice, scientists believe it will work in humans and hope human trials will begin soon.

“We have shown that blocking the p110delta enzyme is also remarkably effective in boosting the body’s immune system to fight leukemia as well as other cancers. It helps your immune system fight cancer better. And it seems to work on all cancers.

“The drug will work on its own to a certain extent, but if the tumour is very large it will be effective when used after surgery to prevent the tumour from spreading,” said Professor Bart Vanhaesebroeck of UCL, co-leader of the research, who first discovered the p110delta enzyme in 1997.

“Our work shows that delta inhibitors can shift the balance from cancer being immune to our own defenses to our own immunity to cancer,” said Dr Klaus Okkenhaug of the Babraham Institute at the University of Cambridge, who co-led the research.

The drug is now in clinical trials and has been granted “Breakthrough Therapy” status by the US Food and Drug Administration, meaning its development will be expedited. If approved by European regulators, it could be available for use in the next few years.

“This new discovery, although still in its early stages, has the potential to develop therapies for a range of cancers, including pancreatic cancer, where there is an urgent need for more effective treatments,” said Professor Nic Jones, Cancer Research UK chief scientist and director of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre.

The research was published in the journal Nature and was funded by Cancer Research UK, the Bioengineering and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Wellcome Fund./.

According to Saigon Newspaper