研究人员发现抑制肝癌的治疗方法

StephenW

Researchers discover treatment that suppresses liver cancer
MedicalXpress Breaking News-and-Events|December 9, 2020

Researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine have discovered a treatment combination that significantly reduces tumor growth and extends the life span of mice with liver cancer. This discovery provides a potentially new therapeutic approach to treating one of the leading causes of cancer-related death worldwide.

A cancer translational research team consisting of physicians, and basic scientists created an integrative therapy that combined minimally invasive radiofrequency ablation (RFA) with the chemotherapy drug sunitinib. Individually, each treatment has a modest effect in the treatment of liver cancer. The team hypothesized that pairing the two treatments would have a profound effect by activating an immune response to target and destroy liver cancer cells. That's exactly what their research revealed.

"We treated tumor-bearing mice with sunitinib to suppress the cancer cells' ability to evade detection by the immune system, then the RFA acted as a spark that ignited the anti-tumor immune response," said principal investigator Guangfu Li, PhD, DVM, Department of Surgery and Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology.
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The team tested this approach by dividing the mice into four groups: a control group, a group that received only sunitinib, a group that received only RFA, and a group that received both RFA and sunitinib. The researchers monitored tumor progression in each mouse via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) over 10 weeks. They discovered the mice receiving combination therapy experienced significantly slowed tumor growth. The life span of the mice in the combination therapy group was significantly longer than all of the other groups.

"These results indicate that the sunitinib and RFA-integrated therapy functions as an effective therapeutic strategy that is superior to each individual therapy, significantly suppressing tumor growth and extending the lifetime of the treated mice," said co-author Eric Kimchi, MD, MBA, Chief of Division of Surgical Oncology and General Surgery, and Medical Director of Ellis Fischel Cancer Center.

The team plans to expand their research to study the effectiveness of this combination therapy on companion dogs and eventually on humans.

"Development of an effective sunitinib and RFA combination therapy is an important contribution to the field of liver cancer treatment and can be quickly translated into clinical applications, as both sunitinib and RFA are FDA approved and are readily available cancer therapies," said co-author Kevin F. Staveley-O'Carroll, MD, PhD, MBA, Chair, Department of Surgery, and Director of Ellis Fischel Cancer Center.

StephenW

研究人员发现抑制肝癌的治疗方法
MedicalXpress最新新闻和事件| 2020年12月9日

密苏里大学医学院的研究人员发现了一种治疗组合，可显着降低肿瘤的生长并延长患有肝癌的小鼠的寿命。这一发现为世界范围内与癌症相关的死亡的主要原因之一提供了潜在的新治疗方法。

一个由医生和基础科学家组成的癌症转化研究小组创建了一种综合疗法，将微创射频消融（RFA）与化疗药物舒尼替尼结合在一起。单独地，每种治疗在肝癌的治疗中均具有适度的作用。该小组假设将两种治疗方法配对将通过激活针对靶细胞并破坏肝癌细胞的免疫反应而产生深远的影响。这正是他们的研究揭示的。

“我们用舒尼替尼治疗了荷瘤小鼠，以抑制癌细胞逃避免疫系统检测的能力，然后RFA成为点燃抗肿瘤免疫反应的火花，”首席研究员李光复博士说，外科和分子微生物学与免疫学系。
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该团队通过将小鼠分为四组来测试这种方法：对照组，仅接受舒尼替尼的组，仅接受RFA的组以及同时接受RFA和舒尼替尼的组。研究人员在10周内通过磁共振成像（MRI）监测了每只小鼠的肿瘤进展。他们发现接受联合疗法的小鼠肿瘤生长明显减慢。联合治疗组小鼠的寿命显着长于所有其他组。

“这些结果表明，舒尼替尼和RFA整合疗法是一种优于每种疗法的有效治疗策略，可显着抑制肿瘤生长并延长被治疗小鼠的寿命，”共同作者Eric Kimchi，医学博士，MBA ，外科肿瘤学和普外科主任，埃利斯·菲舍尔癌症中心医学主任。

该小组计划扩大研究范围，以研究这种联合疗法对伴侣犬以及最终对人类的有效性。

共同作者说：“开发有效的舒尼替尼和RFA联合疗法对肝癌治疗领域具有重要意义，并且可以迅速转化为临床应用，因为舒尼替尼和RFA均已获得FDA批准并易于获得癌症治疗。”凯文·史塔夫利·奥卡罗尔（Kevin F. Staveley-O'Carroll）医学博士，博士学位，工商管理硕士，外科系主任，埃利斯·菲舍尔癌症中心主任。

StephenW

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