A research team in Taiwan announced Friday that it had developed a way to suppress the progression of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumors, potentially paving the way for a viable treatment of the disease.
The team, which includes researchers from Taipei Veterans General Hospital and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, successfully applied gene editing on a type of oncogenic RNA known as C190.
C190 plays a key role in promoting NSCLC, which makes up 85 percent of lung cancer diagnoses.
By combining RNA editing and gene therapy, the team was able to knock down levels of C190, consequently reducing proliferation and migration of NSCLC cells and suppressing tumor growth, the team said.
While C190 is relatively stable and unlikely to mutate, it could become a useful biomarker for the development of NSCLC treatment, according to Chiou Shih-hwa (???), director of the hospital's research center.
Chiou explained that C190's attributes could contribute to better treatments than the current most commonly used method, which targets a protein called epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR).
Abnormal activation of EGFR is one of the most important driving forces for the malignancy development of cancers, according to the team, which published its findings in the American Association for Cancer Research journal in January.
While there have been three generations of EGFR-related medicines developed for clinical treatment of NSCLC, they are challenged by innate or acquired drug resistance within 12 months of drug administration to patients due to EGFR's high mutability, the team said.
One of the most prevalent NSCLC types is adenocarcinoma of the lung, which accounts for a majority of NSCLC patients in Taiwan.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel