Surviving-Cancers.com

A new study indicates anaerobic bacteria may be effective in destroying otherwise untreatable solid tumors.

Rapidly growing solid tumors create pockets without sufficient blood vessels. This makes them difficult to treat with chemotherapeutic drugs. The drugs, carried by blood, cannot get to the cells and resulting dead material cannot be removed by the body.

Cells in these pockets are deprived of oxygen and nutrients. This is known as Hypoxia. As there is an absense of oxygen, hypoxic pockets in tumors create a unique niche in which anaerobic bacteria can grow.

The oxygen deficient pockets can create an environment for dangerous bacteria such as staphylococcus, but they can also be used for a focused therapy to reduce tumors.

Shibin Zhou, M.D., of Johns Hopkins Ludwig Center for Cancer Genetics has developed an attenuated strain of Clostridium novi, an anaerobic bacteria, the spores of which can be injected intravenously.

These spores, which germinate and thrive in the oxygen deprived environment of the middle of the tumor, cause massive death of cancer cells leading to tumor regression.

The bacteria cannot grow in the presence of oxygen, so there is no toxic effect on healthy tissue. In addition to the destruction of the tumor, the bacterial infection elicits a potent antitumor immune response in the host, leading to possible long-term cures.

Dr. Zhou’s laboratory is working on next generation anaerobic bacterial agents to increase potency and combine them with other types of therapies used to kill cancer.

Early detection and treatment has provided the US with the best cancer survival rate in the world, including other Western nations.  This survival rate may soon be getting even better.

For non-small cell lung cancer, specific genetic factors have been determined to be the cause in about 5% of cases.  Recent advances in genetic research, combined with a new treatment, may turn a virtual death sentence into a manageable condition for those with this genetic characteristic.

A gene called Anaplastic Lymphoma kinase, more commonly known as the ALK gene, can combine with another gene or form a duplicate copy of itself.  When this happens, a relatively rare type of tumor can appear.

Presence of the ALK gene is determined by FISH testing which is also sometimes used to detect copies of the HER2 gene in breast cancer patients.

By administering a new oral drug called an “ALK inhibitor”, this type of lung cancer is not only stopped from growing, but appears to melt away.  The drug does not rid the body of the gene, so tumors can reappear, requiring additional future treatments… but the disease becomes manageable.

Five cancer centers worldwide participated in the first two trials of the drug, including the University of Colorado Cancer Center, one of the few places where the related FISH test can be performed.

23 people were treated in the initial studies and almost all of them had dramatic responses within short periods of time.

Ila Hegland, diagnosed nine years ago with stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer, was told she only had two years to live. After six weeks of treatment with the ALK inhibiting drug, no signs of the cancer could be found.

Third stage trials are now being performed and it is hoped that the treatment will be generally available in the near future.

Other forms of cancer are also tied to the ALK gene, including 10 to 15 percent of childhood non-hodgekin lymphomas and myofibroblastic tumors (sarcoma).  With further studies, perhaps the drug can be applied to these types of conditions as well.