Despite there being 124 FDA-approved new medications accessible for solid cancer therapy, a recent study indicated that the overall survival and progression-free survival rates for patients with solid cancer indications had grown only by 1.97-4.60 months and 1.50-5.58 months, respectively. Current cancer treatments largely target the secondary tumours of metastatic cancer rather than the metastasis process, which results in 90% of cancer deaths. This lack of progress in cancer treatment is primarily attributable to this approach.
Arnab Roy Chowdhury, PhD, the founder and director of Mestatop Solutions, a cancer research company, and his team of researchers have created a number of cutting-edge platforms that seek to understand better and target the metastasis process in cancer treatment in order to address this problem. These platforms consist of METVivo, METSCAN, and METAssay.
The METAssay platform uses 30 cellular assays to analyse the distinctions between tumour cells that are developing and those that are metastasizing along the whole metastatic pathway. This helps uncover potential therapeutic targets and gives researchers a better grasp of the biology behind cancer spread.
The METSCAN platform is an addition to the METAssay platform that includes data from patient samples, advancing translational relevance. A preliminary clinical trial for METSCAN’s algorithm, which can assist in predicting the metastatic potential of primary tumours to spread, is now being conducted.
A time-sensitive animal model, the METVivo platform offers quicker turnaround and more reliable findings. The more accurately the model represents the human disease, the more realistic conditions can be used to test the most promising therapy possibilities.
These platforms have already demonstrated encouraging outcomes in a case study, where 2 hits were advanced for translational analysis of several patient samples, leading to outstanding ex-vivo efficacy in reducing metastasis without changing tumour size. The team also conducted a retrospective analysis that demonstrated the potential therapeutic significance of repurposing already-approved medications to treat metastasis; the rank ordering of the retrospective clinical trial of medications correlated with the rank ordering of the METAssay.
According to Chowdhury, his team is capable of selecting the top compounds from any library with anti-metastasis activity, positioning anti-cancer leads/candidates for metastasis, and repurposing authorised medications for the treatment of metastasis. They can adapt this platform to understand the biology of various tissue-specific cancers and their spread. Still, their current work focuses on colorectal, head and neck, and triple-negative breast tumours. The Chowdhury team is sure that their unique strategy will open the door for the creation of novel medications and treatments that will increase cancer patients’ chances of survival and quality of life.
Read the source story on CNBC. – New cancer treatment platforms show promising results in targeting metastasis
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