New drug proves effective at brain cancer treatment

A new drug could have the capability to treat brain tumours by stop them from growing, while not affecting healthy tissue. New research, published in the medical journal 'PLOS ONE', suggests that a drug, which is currently already in the process of clinical development, could be an effective treatment for brain cancer that does not affect healthy cells.

Scientists from the Samantha Dickson Brain Cancer Unit, working with Cancer Research UK, focused their research upon glioblastoma, which is the most common form of brain tumour in the UK. Funded by the Brain Tumour Charity and University College London Cancer Institute, researchers tested the effectiveness of over 150 potential drug treatments.

Glioblastoma cells and healthy brain cells were grown in a laboratory for the purpose of the drug tests. All of the results from each of the drug types were compared and it was found that one of the drug molecules - J101 - managed to stop the growth of the glioblastoma cells but did not affect the healthy tissue.

J101 works by blocking a cellular molecule called polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1), which signals the cancer cells to grow and multiply. Scientists found that three drugs that work in this way are currently undergoing clinical development and that they are currently better able to move from the bloodstream to the brain. Although J101 works in the same way as the three drugs in development, it does not cross over the brain as well. 

Doctor Steve Pollard, senior research fellow at University College London Cancer Institute and lead author of the study, said: “The pharmaceutical industry has developed many different compounds which are now in preclinical and clinical development as anti-cancer drugs. 

"The challenge is determining which potential therapies should be prioritised for which cancers. In this study we show that these glioblastoma cells are particularly vulnerable to these new treatments probably because of faulty p53, and we want to see them developed to treat the disease.”