New drug target makes cancer treatments more effective

By targeting a specific molecule found in blood vessels, researchers in the UK have rendered both chemotherapy and radiation therapies far more effective in killing tumours.                   Scientists have figured out how to make chemotherapy treatments more effective.  A team of researchers has investigated how a molecule called focal adhesion kinase (FAK) affects the success of chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments in mice with cancer. Led by Bernardo Tavora from the Queen Mary University of London's Bart Cancer Institute, the team discovered that this molecule signals the body to repair itself after undergoing these cancer-killing treatments, so it ends up mistakenly trying to shield the cancer cells from being destroyed. So what if they removed the FAK molecules from the blood vessels that grow in tumours? The researchers removed FAK from blood vessels growing in the melanomas and lung cancers of their rodent patients, and reported that both their chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments became significantly more effective. According to the press release, "Cells lining the blood vessels send chemical signals, called cytokines, to the tumour to help it resist DNA damage and to recover. The researchers demonstrated that this process requires FAK in order to work, and without it, these signals are never sent – making the tumour more vulnerable to DNA damaging therapy." To strengthen their findings, the team looked at the effects of FAK levels in blood samples taken from mice with lymphoma. The mice that had naturally low levels of FAK were found to be more likely get through remission following their treatments. This suggests that if drugs were developed to eliminate FAK in a patient’s cancer blood vessels, they could boost chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments and prevent the cancer from returning at a later stage.  The team reported their findings in Nature today. "Although taking out FAK from blood vessels won't destroy the cancer by itself, it can remove the barrier cancer uses to protect itself from treatment,” said Tavora in the press release.