After more than five years of research, Catalan scientists from the Barcelona Biomedical Research Institute have identified malignant cells shed from colon cancer and spread to other organs, which they consider a “substantial” advance.
The finding, published this Wednesday in the journal Nature, shows that early immunotherapy, prior to surgery, can eliminate these cells before they start metastasizing and thus prevent relapses in the disease.
“If we treat before surgery with immunotherapy two weeks before, it is enough to remove residual cells and these mice are cured“, they explain.
Metastasis appears after removing the tumor between 20 and 35% of patients with colon cancer, so its application in humans could save many lives, specifically some 300,000 people could benefit from the treatment.
This finding opens the door to also investigate its application in other types of tumors. “Understanding and avoiding the phenomenon of relapses after surgery is an unresolved medical need. After years of researching colon cancer, we have taken a first step to prevent metastases in patients who debut with a localized disease”, explained Eduard Batlle, group leader at the Ciber -Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red- de Cáncer (Ciberonc).
Source: Lasexta
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