The genetic makeup of cancer tumors may be the key to develop personalized and more potent treatment, a new study suggests.

An effective cancer treatment for each individual patient is yet to be developed. Numerous studies and researchers have tried to perform intricate experiments just to discover what truly makes cancer tumors succumb.

Now, a new study from international researchers found surface proteins in all cancer cells that may finally serve as an "Achilles heel" for future treatments.

Biological Flags

The authors were able to come up with the breakthrough findings by studying the genetic makeup of lung and skin cancers. They found that even if the tumor grows and spreads throughout the body, it carries with it specific biological "flags" that the immune system can be triggered to attack.

These flags in surface proteins can only be found in cancer cells. With this, scientists may develop treatments that specifically target these flags. With some help from the immune system, the combined power may eliminate the tumor.

The Immune System Knows

When the researchers studied further, they discovered that the patients' immune system has already done something to combat their cancers. However, the immune system is too weak to destroy malignant cells.

Upon closer inspection, the tumor contains immune cells inside, signifying that the immune system was able to recognize the unique cancer flags. But then again, the immune cells were not able to finish the job because it was either insufficient or was defeated by the defense mechanisms of cancer cells.

"What we've found for the first time is that tumours essentially sow the seeds of their own destruction," says study lead author Charles Swanton from the Francis Crick Institute in London.

Another amazing discovery is that tumor cells maintain its genetic trademark even after it grow and mutate drastically. This means that there is no escaping for these tumors once a potent treatment that targets the flags is administered.

Possible Treatments

There are two possible treatments that scientists can develop based on the study findings.

The first one involves getting a sample of the tumor via biopsy and then studying its genome in the laboratory. They can try to look for flags in malignant cells. If the tumor contain immune cells that can recognize the flags, then they could multiply these immune cells in the laboratory, inject it back to the patient and start a strong and overwhelming attack on the cancer cells.

The second treatment is to make use of the protein flags as vaccine ingredients against cancer. This vaccine can be administered to the patient and the immune system will regard it as foreign invaders, thus starting an attack.

Future Hopes

If treatments like these would be created, it would probably be most effective against cancers with numerous mutations such as melanoma and lung cancer due to smoking. However, scientists are also keen to investigate further to come up a possible treatment for cancer with less mutations such as pancreatic, bladder and prostate cancer.

Swanton plans to start the first clinical trial in humans, particularly in lung cancer patients, in the next two to three years. While the effectiveness of the treatment has not been confirmed yet, experts think it will provide better outcomes if the immune system attacks multiple tumor flags.

In the meantime, Swanton says their study was able to show that unique treatments for every tumor may be present and that, in its essence, takes personalized medicine to its absolute limit.

The study was published in the journal Science on Thursday, March 3.

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