Researchers at Umeå University and collaborating institutions have developed an experimental cancer drug that may be able to slow tumor growth and prevent aggressive prostate cancer from spreading. Their findings were published in the scientific journal Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy.
"The new drug has been developed to prevent metastasis, and we are very pleased and proud that we have been able to identify the mechanisms that drive cancer cell growth, invasiveness, and metastatic spread," says Maréne Landström, Professor of Pathology at the Department of Medical Biosciences, Umeå University, who led the study.
Targeting Aggressive Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is among the most frequently diagnosed cancers in men. Many prostate tumors grow slowly and never become life threatening. In some patients, however, the disease becomes aggressive and spreads beyond the prostate, most often to the lymph nodes and bones.
To address this dangerous form of the disease, the research team led by Landström created a fully human antibody. Because the antibody is made entirely from human proteins, it has properties that make it suitable for development as a therapeutic drug.
