02. February 2011
Melanomas under Fire
Cologne Researcher discovers new effective Form of Treatment for Skin Cancer. Findings published in the renowned journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA
The skin is the body’s largest organ and melanoma the most common malignant form of cancer. In Germany alone, approximately 100,000 people develop some form of skin cancer annually; many die of the advanced stages of the disease. Despite the latest advances in research and therapy, doctors still need to remove 99.99% of the cancerous cells surgically or with medicine to treat it successfully. A current study by Professor Dr. Hinrich Abken from the Center for Molecular Medicine and the Klinik I für Innere Medizin (Clinic I for Internal Medicine) documents that the elimination of a certain subset rather than all cancer cells can eradicate established tumours. The new strategy can help to modify human immune cells genetically so that they recognise defined proteins on the surface of the tumour cells and destroy them.
The study, which has been published in the current edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, goes on the assumption that the growth of a melanoma depends on a few tumour cells and that the targeted elimination of these cells can cure the cancer, at least in the researcher’s model. For the treatment of melanoma, Prof. Dr. Abken and his team developed a new form of immunotherapy. They injected modified human immune cells into mice with melanoma. These were engineered to destroy a certain subset of cancer cells, which accounted for 2% of the of the tumour, and which were responsible for the growth of the cancer. The modified cells attacked the cancer cells but not the all the cancerous cells of the tumour and successfully shrunk the tumour permanently. No recurrence of the tumour was detected even 36 weeks after the injection. It surprised the researchers that evidently not all the tumour cells, but rather only a few specific cancer cells had to be eliminated to treat the melanoma.
Using modified immune cells for the targeted elimination of specific tumour cells is especially complex. For this reason further intensive research is necessary in order to fully grasp the mechanisms and to understand whether the therapy can be applied in a wider scope. The authors of the study are already suggesting that future strategies involve the elimination of specific tumour cells and that medicine to that effect be developed. The researchers are certain that the findings from their study will mean a paradigm shift for the research and treatment of cancer – here melanoma – and the basis for new treatment strategies in the future.
Internet:
innere1.uk-koeln.de/forschung/labor-tumorgenetik-immunologie
www.pnas.org
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Hinrich Abken,
Tel.: +49 (0)221 478 89614
