New Targeted Treatment Strategy Could Help Bowel Cancer Patients

31 January 2011 - Scientists at the ICR have found an important new drug target for advanced bowel cancer that could also be used to identify tumours that will respond to a drug already used in other cancers.

Dr Janine Erler and colleagues earlier discovered the enzyme lysyl oxidase (LOX) plays a key role in the spread of breast cancer, and suspected it may also be involved in metastasis of other cancers.

In the latest study, Dr Erler’s team confirmed LOX was also important in bowel cancer growth and spread. They found cell growth increased in tumour cells with high levels of LOX, while low levels of LOX led to limited cell growth.

The team further showed that LOX was activating a molecule called SRC to promote cancer growth and spread. A drug called dasatinib is known to block SRC function and is already being used to treat leukaemia patients.

In laboratory tests, Dr Erler’s team found dasatinib reduced bowel cancer cell growth by inhibiting the effects of LOX.

“Our findings have revealed two potential new avenues for combating advanced bowel cancer – either with existing SRC inhibitor treatments or with drugs currently being developed to target LOX,” Dr Erler says.

The research also showed that a test for levels of LOX expression could be used to recognise cancers whose SRC molecules are highly activated, therefore identifying patients most likely to benefit from treatment with dasatinib.