Breast cancer is diagnosed in more than 2.2 million women each year in the world, it is the most frequent in the female sex and the second cause of mortality from cancer, since it is estimated that it causes 685,000 deaths per year. Triple-negative breast tumors are particularly aggressive, leading to a poor prognosis and higher relapse rates and shorter overall survival, averaging one year for metastatic disease.
Now, however, a path of hope is opening up for patients with this cancer diagnosis, since Spanish scientists from the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) have shown for the first time that the drug Omomyc – developed at VHIO itself –, capable of fighting primary tumors, is also effective against metastasis in breast cancer. The study findings have been published in Cancer Research Communications, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).
It has long been confirmed that the MYC gene family plays an important role in the development of almost all solid tumors and Omomyc, which is a therapeutic protein that inhibits them, is effective in treating primary tumors. However, there was some controversy about the role that MYC played in metastases, and according to some studies it could be counterproductive to inhibit it because this could favor cancer recurrence. On the contrary, VHIO researchers have demonstrated the efficacy of inhibiting MYC with Omomyc in different experiments, both in vitro and in vivo.
Omomyc has significant antimetastatic activity
“The response has been very positive and in all cases it has been possible to verify that Omomyc has significant antimetastatic activity, contrary to what had been speculated”, explains Dr. Daniel Massó, researcher of the Peptomyc spin-off and first author of the article. “So far we have shown that Omomyc is effective in controlling many primary tumors; now, in addition, we have seen that it is also an effective drug by blocking the invasion, establishment and growth of metastases in breast cancer”, adds Dr. Laura Soucek, co-director of Translational and Preclinical Research and head of the Modeling Group of Antitumor Therapies of the VHIO.
“Omomyc is also an effective drug by blocking the invasion, establishment and growth of metastases in breast cancer”
Omomyc was developed in Vall d’Hebron as a miniprotein with the ability to inhibit MYC and after conducting numerous preclinical studies it has already begun testing in patients, in a clinical trial that began in May 2021 at VHIO. Before starting it, Omomyc had already demonstrated potent antitumor activity in multiple tumor cell lines and mouse cancer models, regardless of their tissue of origin and their mutations.
Until now, however, all the studies carried out with this drug had focused on primary tumors, but in the latest research, multiple experiments were carried out, both in in vitro models and in mouse models, to test its efficacy against metastatic disease. In the first case, its efficacy was tested in all types of tumors, while in animals the study focused on triple negative breast cancer, a neoplasm for which it is urgent to find better therapeutic options.
Reduced tumor growth and increased survival
The results of the therapy were verified using different models and imaging techniques that made it possible to measure the development of the tumors. “Thus, we were able to see that, in genetically modified mice, Omomyc was capable of making the primary tumor grow less, but we also observed that it had an impact on the growth of metastases and in some cases made them disappear. When we administered Omomyc intravenously, the results were also positive, since we saw that there was a decrease in tumor growth and that the survival of the mice was significantly prolonged”, stated Dr. Massó.
This research has not yet been carried out with patients, but the work carried out by VHIO has also analyzed the possible consequences that the administration of Omomyc would have. To find out, patient databases were analyzed in which it was possible to verify that those breast cancer patients who presented overexpression of the genes that Omomyc blocks had a lower survival rate. “This makes us optimistic and think that if these patients were treated with our drug, perhaps we could improve their survival,” concluded Dr. Massó.
Source: Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO)
.
