Fighting Cancer with "Smart Drugs"

Treatments associated with cancer can have some very unpleasant side effects. Chemotherapy and radiation treatement can kill cancer cells but at the expense of much collateral damage to normal cells. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center are trying to remedy this problem with an approach that targets molecules of cancer cells, found in lung and other thoracic cancers, which enable their proliferation. An article called 'The New Strategy: ‘Smart Drugs’ for Specific Lung Cancers' details the specifics.

In addition to eliminating some side effects, the "smart drugs" that are directed at molecular targets of cancer cells, have the potential to be more effective at fighting the cancer itself. One such molecular target is known as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). This protein's function involves the regulation of the growth of cells. It is found on the surface of cancer cells and receives extra-cellular signals. The disruption of normal cellular regulatory functions is frequently associated with cancer. A strategy that entails the inhibition of EGFR offers the possibility of halting the growth of cancer cells.

Iressa is a drug that is utilized in this EGFR inhibition strategy. The drug has had limited beneficial effects for some patients with lung cancer. These tend to be mostly women who have never smoked. The article notes that there is a particular mutation that has significance with regard to patient responsiveness to Iressa. This mutation, affecting the EGFR receptor, made patients having the mutation, better able to benefit from Iressa.