LOS ANGELES April 18 (UPI) — A gene in a lipid nanoparticle that restores lung cancer cells’ ability to program cell death works against advanced lung cancer, a U.S. study says.
A research team from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston said it has used a nanoparticle-based therapy to successfully treat 13 patients whose lung cancer had progressed through first-line cisplatin combination chemotherapy.
The researchers said the experimental treatment is based on a method to attach the FUS1 gene to a non-toxic, protective lipid nanoparticle that enters the body through a normal intravenous line.
The cholesterol in the lipid protects the nanoparticles from the body’s defense system.
When the nanoparticles get to the lungs, they gravitate to the tumors, which do not have functioning FUS1 genes and have lost their ability to maintain a normal lifecycle. The FUS1 genes restore that ability, and tumor cells start to die on a regular schedule, stopping tumor growth.
Of the 13 patients treated eight received two or more doses and maintained stable disease for three to seven months, with a median survival time for all patients of 14.6 months, which the team noted was double the seven-month median survival time of patients receiving standard therapy.
The researchers presented the data at a poster session on April 17 at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in Los Angeles.
