Galway Bay fm newsroom - Researchers from NUI Galway have published a new study which could lead to new ways of treating people with cancer.
Stromal Cell specialists at NUI Galway and Galway biotech company, Orbsen Therapeutics have published the new work in the medical journal, International Journal of Cancer.
According to researchers, stromal cells are recently discovered and are an important component of solid tumours.
Tumour stromal cells prevent the patient’s immune system from recognising and killing cancer cells and they also limit the effectiveness of many current cancer drugs including immunotherapies.
The study indicates that developing drugs that specifically target tumour stromal cells may enable current drugs to work better in patients.
This Irish Research Council funded collaboration has also discovered a new marker of breast cancer tumour stromal cells called Syndecan-2.
Researchers from Orbsen Therapeutics have developed novel peptide therapeutics to bind and target Syndecan-2 specifically.
They say the peptides caused immune cells to infiltrate the breast cancer, leading to a reduction in growth and notably, reduced the metastasis of the breast cancer to other organs.
Principal Investigator on the study Dr Laura Barkley, says they very excited about the potential benefits of using stromal cells-targeting drugs to improve patient outcomes in combination with current breast cancer treatments.
