For the first time – and in an unexpected way – antibodies have produced promising results in treating mice with end-stage metastatic cancer, New Scientist reports.
The research was led by Robert Debs of the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco.
Remarkably, the antibodies were not directed against cancer, but against healthy tissue. This demonstrates the important role that healthy tissues play in terminal cancer.
The antibodies bound only to a receptor characteristic of normal epithelial cells in organs and blood vessels called the platelet-endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 (PECAM-1). As a result, the tumors stopped growing, and some even decreased. Moreover, the antibodies inhibited weight loss, muscle wasting, and terminal-stage fatigue in breast, lung, colon, and melanoma tumors – but only in the most advanced stages of the disease. Apparently, the antibody only acts on processes that are typical of this phase.
As the author points out, the anti-tumor activity of a receptor found in normal cells is as unexpected as it is counterintuitive. Work is underway to explain this phenomenon. According to specialists, if the method proves successful in the future and is approved for use in humans, it may contribute to extending the life of patients with the most advanced neoplasms (PAP).