New research offers hope of treatment for aggressive cancer
European researchers have discovered a new avenue for the treatment of an aggressive type of cancer called primary effusion lymphoma (PEL), which is caused by the Kaposi's sarcoma herpes virus (KSHV). The research was led by researchers at the University of Helsinki in Finland, and partly funded by the EU through the INCA project, which is working on cancers caused by viruses and other infectious agents. The results have just been published online by the Journal of Clinical Investigation, and will appear in the print version of the journal in April. PEL is one of three cancers caused by the human tumour virus KSHV, and is mostly found in people infected with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). It is an extremely aggressive form of cancer, with an average survival time of less than six months after diagnosis. There is currently no effective treatment for KSHV-induced tumours. The new treatment exploits a molecule called p53. Normally p53 works to protect us from cancer by inducing the death of cancerous cells via a complex chain of molecular signals called the p53 pathway. In at least 50% of all malignant tumours, the gene coding for p53 is found to be either mutated or deleted entirely. Although the p53 gene is intact in most PEL tumours, the researchers found that its action was being blocked by a protein called LANA, which is produced by the virus. The researchers treated the tumours with a molecule called Nutlin-3a, which has previously been shown to be a potential treatment option for cancers where the p53 gene is present. The team found that Nutlin-3a successfully disrupted LANA's blocking action, thereby reactivating p53 and leading to the death of PEL tumour cells. Tests in mice with PEL found that after two weeks of treatment with Nutlin-3a, the tumours had shrunk significantly, raising the hope that treatment with Nutlin-3a could also prove effective in treating humans with the disease.
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