Many of today’s oncological therapies take a targeted approach towards combating cancer in order to reduce the amount of collateral damage on the patient’s healthy cells. Since traditional cancer therapies are notorious for their many harmful side-effects, researchers seek to develop therapies that affect only diseased cells. At Boston University, Professors Remco A. Spanjaard and David H. Sherr have developed novel methods of targeted cancer treatment.

Professor Spanjaard’s seeks to engineer a nanoparticle containing chemotheraputic drugs which would recognize TROY, a cell surface receptor expressed only on metastatic melanoma cells. One version of this nanoparticle would comprise of a targeting ligand specific to TROY and a non-toxic liposome containing a payload of chemotheraputic agents. This targeted treatment promises a very low systemic toxicity because the TROY biomarker selectively delivers the toxic payload to cancerous cells, as high levels of TROY expression are a trait possessed by cancerous cells alone. Professor Spanjaard is also investigating use of the biomarker with imaging agents in order to improve diagnosis of metastatic melanoma.

The Discovered Small Molecule AhR Inhibitor, CB7993113, Blocks Tumor Invasion

Professor Sherr’s research takes a different approach to targeted cancer treatment. Aryl hydrocarbon-receptors (AhRs) help regulate mammary cancer initiation, growth and invasion—thus, by inhibiting their activities, AhR inhibitors can significantly reduce tumor growth and invasion. Rather than targeting the cancerous cells themselves, an AhR inhibitor shuts down the pathway regulating the growth and metastasis of a tumor. Sherr purposed the AhR inhibitor therapy to treat advanced breast cancers, but such therapies also have the potential to treat many different kinds of solid tumors.

Targeted cancer treatments with low toxicity and high adaptability such as those proposed by Professors Spanjaard and Sherr have significant implications for the future of oncology and cancer research: the market for breast cancer therapies alone is predicted to rise to $3.336 billion in 2013.¹ With the advent of targeted therapeutics, cancer patients can hope for a cure that does not take as devastating a toll on the body as traditional treatments.

Sources:
“Breast Cancer Therapeutics Markets,” #N16A-52. Frost & Sullivan, 2008.