The aim of modern cancer research must be to disrupt the “complex eco-systems” that the disease creates in the body, some of the UK’s leading researchers say today.
The Institute of Cancer Research, London, today sets out “exciting” plans to pursue this aim in its new five year strategy with the hope of making some forms of the disease “extinct”.
Among its projects are AI-guided design for drug combinations and dosing, combining viruses with radiotherapy for immunotherapy and developing drugs to target apparently healthy tissue which tumours use for support.
Among its specific projects will be one mapping the evolution of cancer in the body – leading, it is hoped, to low dose strategies that avoid drug resistance together with pharmaceutical combinations to cut off “escape routes” for the disease.
The Institute also wants more work on the tests that can identify the disease at the earliest possible stages – spotting minute amounts of DNA in the blood.
Its chief executive Professor Kristian Helin said: “Our leading scientists and clinicians have identified cancer’s evolution within a complex ecosystem as a major challenge and opportunity for the next five years.
“We have created a really exciting plan to unravel and disrupt cancer’s ecosystems, with new immunotherapies, drugs to target the tissue environment, and clever new anti-evolution combinations and dosing strategies.
“Research has been a driver for remarkable improvements in treatments in recent decades, but we believe we can go even further and eradicate some cancers by targeting the ecosystems required for their growth or tipping the balance in favour of the immune system.
“We’re also confident that through the use of artificial intelligence in combination with detailed biological insights, we can find ways of combining existing treatments to control cancer’s evolution within its ecosystem and significantly increase the overall survival of cancer patients.”
The Institute’s director of drug discovery Dr Olivia Rossanese said: “We plan to open up completely new lines of attack against cancer, so we can overcome cancer’s deadly ability to evolve and become resistant to treatment. We want to discover better targets within tumours and the wider ecosystem that we can attack with drugs.
“We’re finding powerful new ways to eradicate cancer proteins completely and discovering smarter combination treatments that attack cancer on multiple fronts. Together, this three-pronged approach can create smarter, kinder cancer treatments, and offer patients longer life with fewer side effects.”
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