A combination of two medications can block the messages that cancer uses to hijack white blood cells in people who have treatment-resistant prostate cancer. The drugs shrank tumors or stopped their growth, according to a small trial discussed in Nature. The study was published on Oct. 16.
Researchers from The Institute of Cancer Research in the UK gave people with advanced stages of the disease two medications: AZD5069, an experimental drug that blocks cancer cells from controlling myeloid cells to feed tumors, and enzalutamide, a hormone therapy that’s used for prostate cancer.
Of the 21 participants, 24% responded to treatment; that is, their tumor size decreased by more than 30%. The participants saw decreases in their levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA), a marker produced by the prostate that commonly goes up as a result of the cancer. Some people had decreased levels of circulating tumor cells.
The trial was the first in humans to show that the combination can slow the growth or cancer and make tumors more responsive to treatment.
“This research proves for the first time that targeting myeloid cells rather than the cancer cells themselves can shrink tumors and benefit patients,” Johann De Bono, professor in experimental cancer medicine at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said in a statement. “This is tremendously exciting, and it suggests we have an entirely new way to treat prostate cancer on the horizon.”
DeBono said the prostate cancer treatment could possibly be offered for other types of cancer once researchers can study it more.
“This strategy may have broader benefits to sufferers from other cancer types,” he told Fox News Digital.
DeBono said that studying it in a larger population of people with treatment-resistant prostate cancer will give more insights into the results from the small study.
