Using cancer to fight cancer might seem counterintuitive, but there’s method to the apparent madness and, according to proof-of-principle animal experiments reported in Science Translational Medicine today (July 11), it works. Tumor cells engineered to secrete anticancer agents yet resist self-destruction can be used to kill tumors in mice and then, in a fate befitting this act of betrayal, off themselves.
“This is an interesting study showing that genetically-engineered autologous cancer cells can be exploited as a sort of Trojan horse for delivering TRAIL, a pro-apoptotic agent, to tumors,” oncologist Angelo Corti of the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, Italy, who was not involved in the study, writes in an email to The Scientist. “This novel approach undoubtedly represents an important step ahead in translational cancer research.”
TRAIL—or, tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand—is an antitumor agent identified in mammals that can induce cell death in a variety of cancer ...
