Can we find a new cure for treatment-resistant neuroblastoma?
Cancer types:
Neuroblastoma
Project period:
–
Research institute:
Karolinska Institutet
Award amount:
£244,900
Location:
Sweden
Dr Olle Sangfelt and his team in Sweden are developing a new way to target and overwhelm neuroblastoma tumours- bringing hope for families affected by this devastating childhood cancer.
Why is this research needed?
Neuroblastoma causes tumours to develop from early nerve cells, and is mostly diagnosed in children under five. Thanks to research, many cases of neuroblastoma are now very curable. But some tumours are fast growing and aggressive. They can only be controlled with an intensive programme of treatment. Unfortunately even with this treatment, these tumours can still sometimes come back.
Dr Sangfelt and his team have found a ‘weak spot’ in these tumours that is linked to the fact that they grow very quickly. By targeting this vulnerability they hope to develop a new treatment that can turn the tumour’s greatest strength into its greatest weakness. The ultimate aim of this project is to bring new life-saving cures to neuroblastoma patients - especially those with no other treatment options.
Being a Curestarter researcher means a great deal to me. The belief that our work can one day make a real difference for patients and their families is what motivates me every day.
What is the science behind this project?
Some neuroblastoma cells contain genetic changes that help them to grow and divide very quickly. This is one reason why they can be very difficult to treat.
But the speed of this growth also puts the tumour cells under a great deal of stress. They can gather a lot of DNA damage as they divide quickly under pressure- a bit like a factory that compromises on quality in order to produce more. There are limits to how low this quality can go before the cells stop working altogether. Any serious DNA damage must be repaired, so the cells can keep dividing.
Dr Sangfelt’s team have been exploring the molecular machinery that helps to repair the DNA damage in these cells. They will use state-of-the-art methods to find out whether targeting this machinery can also be used as a means of starting an immune response, to identify and eliminate the neuroblastoma cells. Even better, they will search out new drug molecules that could act ‘like a spanner in the works’ by stopping the machinery from repairing DNA.
If the neuroblastoma calls can no longer repair their own DNA, the team predict that they will eventually become overwhelmed with DNA damage – and easier targets for immunotherapies and other treatments. They will test this theory out in lab models of neuroblastoma, using the potential new drug molecules that they identify.
What difference could this project make to patients in the future?
Many patients with neuroblastoma are very young children, and despite often tolerating intensive therapy, they still have far fewer safe and effective treatment options than adults. We urgently need therapies that are both effective and better tolerated in young patients. Dr. Sangfelt’s pioneering work on more precisely targeting neuroblastoma cells has the potential to help meet this critical need.
Overall, this work could one day lead to game-changing treatments for all patients with neuroblastoma and other cancers, and provide new hope for improving outcomes in this particularly challenging disease.
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