Pills previously used to treat leukaemia could now be used to tackle other cancers. File photo
An immune system-boosting pill used to treat leukaemia could help fight other cancers, new research has revealed.
Scientists were surprised to discover the inhibitor drugs were also effective against many other types of cancer.
As a leukaemia treatment, the pills were so successful in trials that those taking placebos were immediately switched to the real drug for ethical reasons.
But this is the first time the drugs have been tested on other types of cancer.
The study, published in the journal Nature and led by British scientists, provides the first evidence that such drugs can significantly restrict tumour growth and spread, and reduce the chances of relapse across a broad range of cancers.
Researchers from University College London, the Babraham Institute, Cambridge, and Queen Mary University of London, worked with scientists from Genentech, South San Francisco, to find that the drugs help boost the body's immune system to kill tumour cells.
Cancer suppresses immunity by producing an enzyme called p110, which makes it difficult for the body to fight the disease.
These drugs work by inhibiting that enzyme, allowing the body's own defences to fight the cancer more effectively.
Research revealed that using the inhibitor drugs in mice significantly increased cancer survival rates across a broad range of tumours.
For example, mice in which the enzyme was blocked survived breast cancer for almost twice as long as mice with active p110. Their cancers also spread significantly less, with far fewer and smaller tumours developing.
Survival after surgical removal of primary breast cancer tumours was also vastly improved, which has important clinical implications for stopping breast cancer from returning following surgery.
Tests using the drug suggest it may boost survival rates after surgery to remove breast cancer tumours
The researchers' figures also show that following inhibition of the enzyme, the immune system could develop an effective memory response to completely fight off the cancer.
Study co-leader Professor Bart Vanhaesebroeck, of the UCL Cancer Institute and who first discovered the enzyme in 1997, said: 'Our study shows that p110 inhibitors have the potential to offer effective immunity to many types of cancer by unleashing the body's own immune response.
'p110 is highly expressed and important in white blood cells, called 'leukocytes'.
'p110 is highly expressed and important in white blood cells, called 'leukocytes'.
'Given that leukaemias are the result of leukocytes becoming cancerous, they are a natural target for p110 inhibitors.
'Now, we have shown that blocking p110 also has the remarkable effect of boosting the body's immune response against leukaemias as well as other cancers.'
The research was funded by Cancer Research UK, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Wellcome Trust.
Professor Nic Jones, Cancer Research UK's chief scientist and director of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre, said: 'Treatments that train the immune system to recognise and kill cancer cells are showing huge promise in several types of cancer.
'This new finding, although only at an early stage, offers the potential to develop more treatments that can do this in many more cancers, including ones that have real need for more effective treatments such as pancreatic cancer.
'If the findings hold true in cancer patients this could make a big difference to many of them. The good news is that because the drugs used in this study are already being used in the clinic, we could see rapid translation of this research into patient benefit.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2655793/Pill-used-treat-leukaemia-used-beat-cancers-stop-deadly-disease-returning.html#ixzz34RmcXCE2
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