Researchers from Harvard University found that a two drug-combination, under certain circumstances, has a high possibility of curing cancer.
As researchers conduct intensive research to find a cure to one of the most fatal diseases - cancer, scientists from Harvard University found that a two drug-combination, under certain circumstances, has a high possibility of curing the disease. This drug combination can be used during a "targeted therapy", designed to interrupt cancer's ability to grow and spread.
Martin Nowak, a professor of mathematics and of biology and director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics and co-author, Ivana Bozic, a postdoctoral fellow in mathematics, define this new discovery as more of a mathematical problem than a cure for the disease.
"In some sense this is like the mathematics that allows us to calculate how to send a rocket to the moon, but it doesn't tell you how to build a rocket that goes to the moon," Nowak said in apress release. "What we found is that if you have a single point mutation in the genome that can give rise to resistance to both drugs at the same time, the game is over. We need to have combinations such that there is zero overlap between the drugs."
He clarified that in order for the targeted therapy to be effective, the patient must be given both drugs at the same time, which goes against many cancer treatments available today. For the study, researchers first collected data from clinicians at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center that showed how patients respond to single-drug therapy. They then used this data to create a computer model of the mechanism of multidrug treatments and used it to treat "virtual patients." By doing so, researchers wanted to observe how the cancer would react to the treatment.
"For a single-drug therapy, we know there are between 10 and 100 places in the genome that, if mutated, can give rise to resistance," Nowak explained. "So the first parameter we use when we make our calculations is that the first drug can be defeated by those possible mutations. The second drug can also be defeated by 10 to 100 mutations."
He went on to explain that even if one mutation can become immune to both drugs, there's a high possibility that the cancer would continue to grow, leading to the failure of the treatment. Hence, it is essential for researchers to "develop drugs such that the cancer needs to make two independent steps."
Nowak hopes that within the next 50 years many cancers would be curable.
