2023-05-05 10:01:03
American researchers have developed a promising gel to treat aggressive brain tumors. The gel, in combination with surgical removal of the tumor, ensured a 100 percent survival in mice. Mice in which they only surgically removed the tumor all died.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University developed the gel containing a cancer drug to treat brain tumors called glioblastomas, the most aggressive form of brain tumors.
In eight mice, they first removed the tumor surgically, after which they injected a liquid that itself formed a gel in the brain. The gel can get into the grooves that are difficult to reach during surgery. All mice that underwent this combined treatment survived, while the eight mice in which the researchers only removed the tumor all died. In mice that only received the treatment with the gel, so without surgery, half died. According to the researchers, it is therefore essential that the gel is used in combination with surgical removal of the tumor.
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The treatment with the gel also activated the mice’s immune system in such a way that it managed to defeat the cancer without surgery in the case of a second tumor. So it seems that the gel causes the immune system to remember how to clear the cancer cells.
Double action gel
The gel contains the commonly used chemotherapy drug paclitaxel. By evenly covering the cavity that remains after surgical removal of the tumor with the gel, it can continuously release the drug over a period of several weeks.
The effect of the gel is special, because the paclitaxel is adapted in such a way that it transports a specific antibody produced by the immune system. This antibody can change cells called macrophages to attack the tumor cells.
Macrophages sometimes help the immune system by clearing out dead or damaged cells, but cancer cells can also modify these macrophages to stimulate tumor growth. Thanks to the antibody, the macrophages do attack the tumor cells, making this antibody an important factor in the treatment of the cancer.
With the gel, the researchers have therefore succeeded in combining the effect of the cancer drug and the antibody. This is a challenge due to the different molecular compositions of the active substances.
Local treatment
neurosurgery Marie Broekman of the Leiden University Medical Center and Haaglanden Medical Center treats many patients with glioblastomas. ‘These tumors are without exception fatal. That’s why we as neurosurgeons are happy with every new research.’
Broekman is very impressed with the concept that these researchers developed, mainly because it concerns a local treatment. ‘Local treatments are worth exploring because treatments that work on the whole body often don’t get to the brain. In addition, some substances that are toxic in body-wide treatment are not toxic when applied topically. This applies, for example, to the antibodies they use in this study. The use of these antibodies is extremely interesting and innovative.’
They don’t normally see 100 percent survival in this phase of testing, according to the researchers. Nevertheless, Broekman indicates that promising results in studies with mice do not immediately mean that a treatment will also work well in humans.
There are all kinds of factors that could influence the success in humans, for example whether there would be any nasty side effects. The long-term effect of the treatment must also be better mapped out. ‘But in general my judgment is positive and I would like to apply a treatment like this as a neurosurgeon, if it is found to be safe,’ says Broekman.
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