Sprayable gel could help prevent recurrences of cancer after surgery

Many people who are diagnosed with cancer will undergo some type of surgery to treat their disease -- almost 95 percent of people with early-diagnosed breast cancer will require surgery and it's often the first line of treatment for people with brain tumors, for example. But despite improvements in surgical techniques over the past decade, the cancer often comes back after the procedure.

Now, a UCLA-led research team has developed a spray gel embedded with immune-boosting drugs that could help. In a peer-reviewed study, the substance was successful half of the time in awakening lab animals' immune systems to stop the cancer from recurring and inhibit it from spreading to other parts of the body.





"This sprayable gel shows promise against one of the greatest obstacles in curing cancer," Gu said. "One of the trademarks of cancers is that it spreads. In fact, around 90 percent of people with cancerous tumors end up dying because of tumor recurrence or metastasis. Being able to develop something that helps lower this risk for this to occur and has low toxicity is especially gratifying."

The researchers loaded nanoparticles with an antibody specifically targeted to block CD47, a protein that cancer cells release as a "don't-eat-me" signal. By blocking CD47, the antibody enables the immune system to find and ultimately destroy the cancer cells.


"We also learned that the gel could activate T cells in the immune system to get them to work together as another line of attack against lingering cancer cells," Chen said.



Source: https://cancer.ucla.edu/Home/Components/News/News/1230/1631


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