An experimental drug has for the first time been shown to block a gene central to the growth of many cancers — in what could be a breakthrough.
The treatment — known as OMO-103 — works by suppressing MYC, which orchestrates messages telling a cell to divide.
In a study of a dozen patients with various forms of hard to treat cancer, the drug was able to halt tumor growth in eight patients.
Of these, two had pancreatic cancer, three had colon cancer, one had non-small lung cancer, one had a sarcoma and one had a salivary gland cancer.
Experts have been trying for years to develop a drug that directly blocks MYC, which goes into overdrive in 70 per cent of human cancers.
Normal cells only make the protein when it is time to multiply. But cancer cells produce it in large amounts continuously, leading to uncontrolled growth.