Chemotherapy has been the standard cancer treatment method for lung cancer, but it is known to cause problems, including harming healthy cells and not killing all cancer cells. These cells are often changed as a result of the chemotherapy, making them more difficult to treat with standard methods. As a result, these cells evade further treatment, causing the cancer to return. More recently, immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors have become the mainstay of first line and follow on therapy in various types of lung cancers.
A recent study by Dr. Gaetano Gargiulo at the Helmholtz Association in Germany has discovered a potential way to treat cells that have been altered by chemotherapy treatment. His research was recently published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine and focused on non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common type of lung cancer, which includes several subtypes.
While chemotherapy is often successful in stopping cells from dividing in NSCLC patients, aggressive cancer cells can survive the treatment and end up altered as a result. These remaining cells are dangerous because they have changed in a way that can leave doctors unsure as to what type of cancer they are dealing with and how to best treat it.
Dr. Gargiulo’s team investigated an enzyme, called Enhancer of Zeste 2 (EZH2), that promotes lung cancer. They treated test mice with drugs that inhibited EZH2, and soon found that it caused the cancer cells to become more aggressive due to inflammation in the cells. Instead of seeing this as a problem, researchers saw an opportunity to outsmart the cancer. The researchers encouraged the cells to become inflamed and then ambushed them by giving the mice an anti-inflammatory drug, leaving the aggressive cells exposed and vulnerable to treatment.
Early tests suggest this could be a potential strategy to explore in treating lung cancer patients. Gargiulo made a point of noting that making cancer more aggressive can be very dangerous, and researchers must be cautious when pursuing this experimental path.