CANCER DIGEST – Aug. 20, 2014 – A drug used to treat leukemia may be useful in slowing or halting cancer spread in other cancers, a new study shows.
The drug, Dasatinib is a type of drug called a protein tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI). Tyrosine kinases are proteins that act as chemical messengers to stimulate cancer cells to grow.
It is used in leukemia to check cell growth, but researchers led by Mitchell Denning, PhD at Loyola University in Chicago have found that the drug triggers a process called cell-cell adhesion in such solid tumor cancers as breast and skin cancers. The researchers reported their findings in a study published online ahead of print in the journal Molecular Carcinogenesis.
The drug acts on a protein called BCR-ABL linked to cancer cell growth. Applying dasatinib to cancer cells in a laboratory dish caused the cells to clump together. Tested in mice they found the drug reduced the number and size of skin tumors and prevented the cancer from metastasizing, or spreading to other parts of the body.
Clinical trials in humans are underway to test dasatinib on patients with melanoma, prostate, pancreatic, gastric and ovarian cancers.
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