TRAIL + Sorafenib: New Combination for Cancer Cell Death
July 18, 2007 by Gloria Gamat
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
A combination of TRAIL (a tumor necrosis factor) and sorafenib (an inhibitor currently used to treat renal cancer) has been found to reduce the size of tumors in mice with colon carcinomas with few side effects – thereby demonstrating the potential effectiveness of the combined treatment on human colon cancers.
Such were the new combination therapy identified by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers.
According to Wafik S. El-Deiry, MD, PhD, professor of Medicine, Genetics, and Pharmacology:
“Cancer cells will do whatever it takes to survive in harsh environments. Our findings are exciting because TRAIL in combination with sorafenib appears to be much less toxic than current chemotherapy drugs. Plus, sorafenib is already available in a pill form.
The ability of sorafenib to work through multiple pathways may be beneficial to cancer treatments because cancer may be altering multiple targets.
In addition to proposing a combination therapy that’s rational, non-toxic, and effective in preclinical trials, our findings open up new avenues of molecular exploration for designing targeted anti-cancer therapies.”
Findings have been reported in the July issue of Cancer Cell.
Read the full report.
