Prostate cancerWIKIMEDIA COMMONS, NEPHRON
Cannibalistic cancer?
Cancer’s got a new enemy—drugs that block autophagy, the process of cellular cannibalism that is increased in many cancer cells. Presenting at AAAS, Ravi K. Amaravadi, an assistant professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine and Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, argues that blocking the cell’s ability to degrade and recycle proteins can enhance a variety of cancer treatments.
Amaravadi and others have shown that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), an approved malaria and rheumatoid arthritis treatment, can do just that. Laboratory models of treatment-resistant cancers and ongoing clinical trials have demonstrated that HCQ can enhance antitumor activity when combined with chemotherapy, targeted therapy, radiation, and immunotherapy.
“Our assays performed on human blood and tissue samples indicate that high doses of ...
