A new treatment protocol for advanced head and neck cancer (Short trametinib treatments, not prolonged, lets anti-PD-1 therapy completely eliminate cancer)

Medical Xpress / Ben-Gurion University of the Negev / Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer ^ | Mar. 28, 2022 | Manu Prasad et al

[ConservativeMind]

The current treatment of patients diagnosed with advanced or metastatic head and neck cancer (HNC) is ineffective. Researchers have investigated and validated a potential treatment combination against the aggressive disease driven by hyper-activation of a specific signaling pathway, which is found in over 40% of HNC patients.

Specifically, the authors showed in pre-clinical HNC models that treating tumor-bearing mice with a therapy that blocks this signaling pathway, sensitizes tumors to the immunotherapy of anti-PD1, resulting in the disappearance of tumors after the therapy combination. This effective treatment was validated in four HNC cancer models, and most mice were cured with no recurrent disease. Together with Dr. Pierre Saintygn from Lyon the authors also validated some of the findings in HNC patients.

The research was led by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

"Our unique ability to generate pre-clinical HNC models and to investigate new treatment and treatment combinations provides hope for HNC patients. We sincerely hope that oncologists will test this treatment combination in HNC patients, as improving immunotherapy efficacy is crucial for prolonging the survival of cancer patients," says Prof. Elkabets.

The authors also showed for the first time in mice bearing HNC that the treatment should be given sequentially. They found that a short treatment with trametinib is sufficient to sensitize anti-PD-1 resistant tumors. This sensitization happens because trametinib treatment, on the one hand, inhibits tumor cell proliferation and, on the other hand, down-regulates the expression of an immunosuppressive factor that determines the propagation of immunosuppressive cells in the tumor site. This effect enables cytotoxic white blood cells to reach the tumor site, and together with anti-PD1, can kill the tumor cells efficiently. However, when mice were treated with prolonged trametinib treatment, tumors failed to respond to immunotherapy.

[ConservativeMind]

The current way to use trametinib is counter productive and causing immunotherapy failure.

It needs to be used in much shorter doses.

[ConservativeMind]

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[KC Burke]

I’m not sure from the description if this is a brain cancer, a bone cancer, a skin cancer or something else entirely. I had stage 3 stomach cancer which is a gastrological tumor cancer.

I went to a good Oncologist-Hemotologist and an Oncological Surgeon. They were recommended by my Gastroenterologist. They were up on the very latest treatments out of Sloan Kettering and MD Anderson. The treatments they proscribed saved my life the last 3 years. I have lost friends and acquaintances who don’t want to follow the prescribed treatments and instead look for trendy things that will be a magic bullet.

It was tough but I lived through it.