Revolutionary cancer drug could remove side-effects from radiation treatments

SAN FRANCISCO — Imagine a cancer treatment so precise it could destroy tumors while leaving healthy tissue untouched. Researchers at the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF) have taken a major step toward making this dream a reality, developing a revolutionary approach that could transform how we fight cancer.

Traditional radiation therapy is like using a sledgehammer to kill a fly — effective but hugely destructive. It zaps cancer cells but also damages surrounding healthy tissue, leading to debilitating side-effects that can often be as challenging as the disease itself. Now, a team of innovative scientists has developed a microscopic missile system that could change everything.

The breakthrough comes from an ingenious combination of three key components: a special drug, a targeting antibody, and a radioactive payload. It’s a precision-guided treatment that turns cancer cells into glowing beacons, making them easy targets for destruction.

“This is a one-two punch,” says Dr. Charly Craik, one of the study’s co-senior authors, in a media release. “We could potentially kill the tumors before they can develop resistance.”

The journey began a decade ago with Dr. Kevan Shokat’s discovery of how to attack KRAS, a protein notorious for driving uncontrolled cell growth in up to a third of all cancers. Previous drugs could temporarily shrink tumors, but the cancer would inevitably return. The breakthrough came when researchers realized these drugs could do more than just suppress the protein — they could actually mark cancer cells for destruction.

In their groundbreaking experiments, the team tested the treatment on lung and bladder tumors in mice. Not only did the treatment eliminate tumors, but it did so without causing the typical side-effects like lethargy or weight loss that plague traditional radiation therapies.

“Radiation is ruthlessly efficient in its ability to ablate cancer cells, and with this approach, we’ve shown that we can direct it exclusively to those cancers,” says Dr. Mike Evans, another lead researcher of the project.

The technique works like a microscopic assassination mission. First, a drug attaches to the KRAS protein in cancer cells, creating a distinctive marker. Then, an antibody specifically designed to recognize this marker swoops in, carrying a radioactive payload. When the antibody finds its marked target, it delivers a precise, lethal dose of radiation directly to the cancer cell.

“The drug bound to the KRAS peptide sticks out like a sore thumb, which the antibody then grabs,” explains Dr. Kliment Verba, who used advanced microscopy to visualize this process at the atomic level.

While the results are promising, the researchers acknowledge there’s still work to be done. The next challenge is developing antibodies that can work across different ways people’s cells display the KRAS protein, making the treatment universally applicable.

This research, published in the journal Cancer Research, represents more than just a scientific breakthrough. It offers hope and a glimpse into the future, where cancer treatment could be precise, personalized, and far less traumatic for patients.

As Dr. Verba optimistically notes, they’ve “taken a significant step toward patient-specific radiation therapies, which could lead to a new paradigm for treatment.”