A Portuguese researcher has discovered a way to make chemotherapy more effective in fighting cancer, and minimize their side effects, according to a study published in the journal Cancer Cell.
A team of researchers at VIB / KULeuven (Leuven, Belgium), headed by Portuguese Rodrigo Leite de Oliveira, confirmed that blocking an enzyme (PhD2) normalizes blood flow to the tumor and thus improves the response to chemotherapy.
The blood vessels supplying the tumor are naturally irregular, fragile and dysfunctional, which hinders the driving of drugs to cancer cells and promotes the spread of cancer cells and metastasis formation.
This study demonstrated that when the activity was reduced PhD2 endothelial cells of tumors, the tumor vascular network stabilized and chemotherapeutic agents (in this study, cisplatin and doxorubicin) were distributed more evenly throughout the tumor, increasing its action.
Thus, the tumors were smaller and more sensitive to lower doses of drugs - an advantage in administration of drugs with high toxicity.
Inhibition of PhD2 oxygen sensor resulting in further neutralization of the side effects of chemotherapy, protecting the renal and cardiac function, generally most affected by the use of the drugs in question.
The researchers found that this protection resulted from an increase in antioxidant defenses, crucial to avoid injury to vital organs during chemotherapy treatments.
This study demonstrates for the first time a dual strategy to combat cancer: a reduction of tumor and metastases, and substantial reduction of side effects associated with chemotherapy.
The next step will be to develop specific inhibitors of the molecule PhD2 allowing its application in clinical practice.
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