Superresolution image of a cluster of killer T cells (green and red) surrounding a cancer cell (blue, center). Credits: Alex Ritter, Jennifer Lippincott Schwartz and Gillian Griffiths, National Institutes of Health
World Cancer Day, which is held every year on February 4, is an opportunity to mobilize doctors, researchers and patients to raise public awareness of the main issues in the fight against the disease. With its partners, Inserm is working to advance research in order to improve screening and care for patients, but also to identify new therapeutic leads. Focus on three recently published studies.
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Fight against the deleterious effects of chemotherapy
Cisplatin is a chemotherapy indicated to fight against tumors in many cancers. However, it is accompanied by significant side effects: toxicity in the kidneys, significant neuropathic pain… In a study published in November 2022 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, an Inserm research team in Lille has identified a promising drug to combat these deleterious effects for patients.
Already authorized against Parkinson’s disease, this molecule called istradefylline could not only reduce the side effects of chemotherapy but also improve its anti-tumor properties. These results will now have to be consolidated in the context of a clinical trial.
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Immunotherapy: identification of a new biomarker
In less than ten years, immunotherapy has progressed considerably to the point of now constituting a therapeutic indication in more than twenty cancers. However, there are still obstacles. These therapies do not yet work for all patients. To improve this situation, scientists are therefore actively working to better understand the mechanisms of action of immunotherapy and the potential obstacles.
An Inserm research team at PARCC (UMR-S 970 Université Paris Cité, Inserm, Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou – AP-HP) recently demonstrated not only the existence of a mechanism that allows certain tumor cells derived from cancer of the kidney to survive the action of the immune system but also the existence of a soluble biomarker in the blood, CD27, characteristic of certain forms of cancer.
In particular, the researchers showed that the presence of soluble CD27 at high levels in the blood was associated with a poor patient response to immunotherapy. These results, published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research , gave rise to the filing of two patents.
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Epigenetics sheds light on gender bias in predisposition to certain cancers
A new Inserm study looked at the epigenetic role of a non-coding RNA in the development of aggressive tumors, particularly in breast cancer. Published in the review Cell this work would partly explain some of the gender biases in the predisposition to certain pathologies.
As a reminder, epigenetics is a discipline that studies the mechanisms involved in the regulation of genes, essential to the action of cells and the maintenance of their identity.
“Cancers: understanding for better treatment”: Inserm magazine n°55 is online
Targeted therapies, antibody generation, cellular therapies, anti-cancer vaccines… All this therapeutic arsenal which has already revolutionized the fight against cancer, or will soon do so, has one and the same origin as its starting point: a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms at work within cancer cells and a finer understanding of their interactions with their immediate environment. The latest Inserm magazine dedicated to the fight against cancer, which retraces these advances, can be found here.