A Taiwan research team has discovered a protein strongly associated with the migration of pancreatic cancer to other organs after surgery, according to Taipei City-based Academia Sinica March 10.
IL-17RB was targeted using an antibody in a successful attempt to block tumor metastasis and improve the survival rate of lab mice. The finding was published March 3 in U.S.-based Journal of Experimental Medicine.
Team leader Lee Wen-hwa, an AS academician and distinguished research fellow from the Genomics Research Center, said 80 percent of pancreatic cancer patients are diagnosed at terminal stage due to a lack of symptoms. “Even with early diagnosis, the five-year survival rate of patients after surgery averaged only between 20 percent and 25 percent.”
Based on Lee’s previous work and in collaboration with Dr. Tien Yu-wen and Dr. Jeng Yung-ming from National Taiwan University Hospital, the AS team analyzed 111 pancreatic cancer specimens and found strong positive correlation between the overexpression of IL-17RB and tumor malignancy.
The team then developed a new antibody to counteract the protein in lab mice. The treatment significantly extended the test subjects’ life span by suppressing tumor growth and lung metastasis.
“Our findings not only illustrate a key mechanism underlying the cancer’s highly aggressive characteristics, but also provide a practical approach to tackle the disease,” Lee said. “The antibody has been patented and we expect it to generate enormous interest in the cancer research field.”
According to Wu Heng-hsiung, another AS researcher and first author of the paper, since IL-17RB has a much less significant role in other parts of the human body, targeting this receptor with an antibody is likely to cause minimal side effects.
The latest study marks the second major biomedical discovery by Lee, who was the first scholar to identify the human tumor suppressor gene retinoblastoma in the late 1980s. In addition, one of his breast cancer drugs has reached the clinical trial phase. (SFC-JSM)
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