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New combination therapy for solid tumors?

Date:
February 14, 2011
Source:
Journal of Clinical Investigation
Summary:
Most, if not all, solid tumors contain regions that are not well oxygenated. Tumor cells in these regions are usually resistant to the death-inducing effects of chemotherapeutics. But now, researchers have identified a compound that induces human cancer cells exposed to low levels of oxygen conditions to die by a process known as apoptosis, leading them to suggest that combining this compound with conventional chemotherapeutics could improve treatment of solid tumors.
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Most, if not all, solid tumors contain regions that are not well oxygenated. Tumor cells in these regions, which are known as hypoxic regions, are usually resistant to the death-inducing effects of chemotherapeutics.

But now, Caroline Dive and colleagues, at Manchester University, United Kingdom, have identified a compound (ABT-737) that induces human cancer cells exposed to hypoxic conditions in vitro to undergo a form of cell death known as apoptosis. In addition, cells in hypoxic regions of human tumors xenografted in mice were susceptible to ABT-737-induced apoptotic cell death.

As ABT-737 synergized with conventional chemotherapeutic agents in tumor-bearing mice, the authors suggest that such a combination of drugs could improve treatment of solid tumors.


Story Source:

Materials provided by Journal of Clinical Investigation. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Luke R. Harrison, Dimitra Micha, Martin Brandenburg, Kathryn L. Simpson, Christopher J. Morrow, Olive Denneny, Cassandra Hodgkinson, Zaira Yunus, Clare Dempsey, Darren Roberts, Fiona Blackhall, Guy Makin, and Caroline Dive. Hypoxic human cancer cells are sensitized to BH-3 mimetic–induced apoptosis via downregulation of the Bcl-2 protein Mcl-1. JCI, February 14, 2011 DOI: 10.1172/JCI43505

Cite This Page:

Journal of Clinical Investigation. "New combination therapy for solid tumors?." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 14 February 2011. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110214122643.htm>.
Journal of Clinical Investigation. (2011, February 14). New combination therapy for solid tumors?. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 19, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110214122643.htm
Journal of Clinical Investigation. "New combination therapy for solid tumors?." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110214122643.htm (accessed March 19, 2024).

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