University of Cincinnati research reveals a potential new combo cure for head and neck cancer

Head and neck cancer is the sixth most common cancer worldwide, and while there are effective treatments, sadly, the cancer recur frequently.

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have tested a new combination in animal models to see if they could find a way to make an already effective treatment even better.

Because they use a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration to do this, this could help people sooner rather than later.

These results are published in the journal Cancer letters.

Christina Wicker, PhD, who was a graduate fellow in the Vinita Takiar, MD, PhD laboratory, led this research which she says will one day hope for patients’ lives.

“Head and neck cancer, like any cancer, is truly life-changing,” she says. “Head and neck cancer can affect your throat, tongue or nose, and often can’t for patients to swallow, talk or eat; it really takes away some of the most social, enjoyable parts of life. “

Researchers in this study combined radiation therapy with a drug (telaglenastat) that inhibits a key enzyme in a modified cell pathway in cancer cells, causing these cells to grow rapidly and persist. face treatment. Wicker says this drug has already been studied in several clinical trials to see if it could improve the treatment of various cancers.

“To date, no one has studied whether this drug has the potential to improve radiation treatment in head and neck cancer. More importantly, patients have been well tolerated with this drug and cause sub- minimum effects, “she says.

Using animal models, researchers found that the drug alone reduced head and neck cancer cell growth by up to 90%, and increased the effectiveness of radiation in animals with head and neck tumors by 40%.

“With these results, and especially with previous clinical trials showing that the drug is getting up well with patients, there is potential for a faster transition to head and neck cancer clinical trials,” Wicker says. “In the future, we hope this drug will be used to make radiation treatments for head and neck cancer even more effective.”

Currently, radiation therapy is the most common treatment for that cancer, but the latter cancer returns in up to half of patients, Wicker says, and often does not respond as positively as second treatment.

“When [traditional] drugs are less effective, it becomes difficult to control cancer growth, and that can spread the cancer quickly to other organs, “she says. It is very important that scientists and clinicians develop new cancer therapies to improve the treatment of this type of cancer, and hopefully our findings will provide one more option to help patients. ”

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