The biggest challenge in cancer treatment comes when medicines stop working after some time. Initially, chemotherapy or targeted therapy is effective, but gradually the cancer cells mutate. These changes are called mutations. These mutations make the cancer resistant to drugs, and treatment fails. This problem is especially common in metastatic cancer, where the cancer has spread to other parts of the body.
Scientists discovered a new method of treatment
An international team of scientists led by Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science has discovered a completely new way to fight cancer. The most important aspect of this research is that scientists are now using the same mutations that make cancer drug resistant as the basis of treatment. This study has been published in the prestigious medical journal Cancer Discovery.
What is SpotNeoMet technology?
The research team has developed a special computational tool named SpotNeoMet. This tool identifies mutations that emerge in cancer after treatment and are found in common in many patients. These mutations cause small protein fragments, called neo-antigens, to form in cancer cells.
How do neo-antigens become a weakness of cancer?
Neo-antigens are present only on cancer cells, not on healthy cells. This is why the immune system can be trained to recognize them. The goal of new immunotherapy is to train the body’s immune system to recognize these neo-antigens and attack only the cancer cells, without harming healthy cells.
This is not a personalized treatment, but a solution for all
According to Professor Yardena Samuels, the mutations that help cancer escape drugs may become its biggest weakness in targeted immunotherapy. The specialty of this technique is that it does not require different treatment for every patient. That is, it is not a “special treatment”, but rather a treatment that can be used for a large number of patients.
Early successful results in prostate cancer treatment
Scientists tested this new technology on metastatic prostate cancer, a cancer in which most patients become resistant to treatment over time. During the research, three neo-antigens were identified, which showed promising and positive results in lab tests and experiments conducted on mice.
New hope for cancer patients
If future clinical trials on humans are also successful, this technology could prove to be a boon for patients whose cancer is not responding to current treatment. To put it simply, scientists are now using cancer’s own cunning against itself. This discovery could completely change the direction of cancer treatment in the future.