By Admin at 30 Mar 2017, 14:58 PM
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S., a close second only to heart disease. Part of the challenge of winning the war against cancer lies in treating the disease in its later stages — a point at which many cancers become hard, if not impossible, to eliminate.
Cancer interception may change that by targeting cancer at its earliest stages, in some cases even before it starts. Also known as active prevention and early prevention, the basic idea behind cancer interception is to intercept the cells that may turn into cancer.
The use of colonoscopy to screen for polyps, a precursor to colon cancer, is one example of cancer interception that’s currently in use. Once detected, the polyps can be removed in order to stop cancer from potentially developing. However, there are many other strategies currently in development.
"If you can intervene earlier, and ramp up the immune response early on in the process or prevent cells from evading the immune system, that could be your point of interception," oncologist Matthew Yurgelun of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute told Business Insider.
Cancer vaccines, of which there are nearly 1,300 in development, are one promising avenue, both in regard to preventive vaccines used to vaccinate against cancer-causing viruses as well as therapeutic vaccines, which represent the majority of vaccines in the pipeline, according to research published by Global Business Intelligence.
Ultimately, the idea is that people who are at increased risk of cancer, due to genetics, lifestyle factors such as smoking or because a screening picked up a precancerous lesion, for example, could be further assessed for mutations that may signal cancer.
A preventive cancer vaccine would then be given to target the perceived cancer risk or mutations, while immunotherapy drugs would help to ramp up the person’s immune response.
“If it worked, maybe they'd never really get cancer at all,” Business Insider noted. The news outlet also reported on so-called “precision prevention,” which is furthering the ability of doctors to determine which drugs, such as daily aspirin, could help prevent cancer in which people. Other game changers on the horizon include:
It’s hoped that one day cancer will be viewed as a condition that can be largely prevented, detected early and eliminated in its early stages.
Whereas right now about 90 percent of the emphasis is on cancer treatment, Ernest Hawk, vice president for cancer prevention at MD Anderson told Business Insider that “the emphasis will ultimately be on prevention and treatment of those cases that sneak through …”
Clinical trials will be crucial toward this end, and many exciting Gateway-funded studies are currently underway, including a phase 1 trial of precision therapy to treat myelodysplastic syndrome, a form of blood cancer, the use of a vaccine to target cytomegalovirus in patients newly diagnosed with glioblastoma brain tumors and many more.
Sources:
Business Insider March 15, 2017
Global Business Intelligence November 2016
58
Current Gateway-funded clinical trials
150+
Clinical trials funded at leading institutions worldwide
$16.56
Funds one patient for one day at a Gateway-funded clinical trial
