New drug may improve liver cancer therapy
06 August, 2018
Researchers from many international institutions have teamed up to design a more effective drug for liver cancer therapy. Their compound may help improve survival rates and reduce adverse effects.
Hepatocellular carcinoma, or primary liver cancer, tends to grow and expand at a fast rate.
If it is not caught early, this means that people who have been diagnosed with it may not survive longer than 11 months.
Recent studies show that in the United States, hepatocellular carcinoma is the ninth leading cause of cancer-related deaths.
To treat it, specialists will usually prescribe therapy with a drug called "sorafenib." Unfortunately, this drug typically prolongs survival by only 3 months, and it can have numerous adverse effects.
In an effort to improve liver cancer treatment, researchers from the Cancer Institute of Singapore at the National University of Singapore in Queenstown have come together with colleagues from other global institutions to develop a new experimental drug, which they call "FFW."
FFW, the scientists believe, could hinder the growth of primary liver cancer and help reduce the unwanted effects of typical therapy.
The researchers outline the process of developing FFW in a paper now published in the journal PNAS.
"In our latest work, [we have] demonstrated an effective strategy to accurately target oncogenes previously considered undruggable," says study co-author Prof. Daniel Tenen, of the National University of Singapore.