BRITAIN: British scientists have discovered a new way to improve the effectiveness of drugs used to treat prostate cancer.
Researchers at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford found that blocking the action of a gene called IGF1R makes prostate cancer cells more sensitive to radiotherapy and certain chemotherapy treatments.
"This is the first study to show that silencing the IGF1R gene can improve the effectiveness treatments for prostate cancer," Dr Val Macaulay, who headed the research team, said yesterday.
Prostate is one of the most common cancers in men. Each year 543,000 new cases are reported worldwide, and the disease kills 200,000 mostly older men in developed countries.
Starving the cancer of male hormones works in the early stages, but the disease eventually becomes hormone-independent, and the treatment ceases to work.
"Prostate cancer is resistant to essentially all forms of chemotherapy, so there is an urgent need for new ways to tackle the disease," Dr Macaulay said.
Dr Macaulay and her colleagues found that switching off the gene in prostate cancer cells with a genetic technique called RNA interference doubled their sensitivity to radiotherapy.