A new drug for those who have a certain type of aggressive, spread prostate cancer can become a reality with a new discovery of a research group in Umeå.
– We have found a method that reduces the size of the tumor and inhibits metastases, says Jenny Persson, professor of microbiology at Umeå University.
Gunnar Ersbo knew that there was a great risk that he would get prostate cancer because it was in the family. Dare to talk about the disease was important to him when he was diagnosed and now he is involved in the Prostate Cancer Association.
– I was “lucky” that it was nine in the hunting team that had the same illness, we talked to a man, says Gunnar Ersbo. I think the elderly have saved more people by talking about it and telling them to seek care.
Activate a protein
What the researchers in Umeå, together with researchers in other countries, are discovered is about the glycoprotein GP130. In the past, cancer research has been to block the protein. The research group’s discovery shows that the protein should instead be activated by means of, for example, the gene scissors, then the immune system is started and T cells can kill the cancer cells and inhibit the metastases.
Jenny Persson Professor at the Department of Molecular Biology:
– This discovery will hopefully lead us to strengthen the patient’s own immune system. Allow the patient’s own T cells to inhibit tumor development and even dead cancer metastases-and save lives, says Jenny Persson, professor at the Department of Molecular Biology at Umeå University.
AI can find cancer in the past
The researchers have seen good results, now more research remains before they can test the drug on humans. At the same time, a study is being made in which AI is used, to get more individualized treatments.
– AI can find cancer in the past and once the cancer has metastized, AI can decide which drugs are precisely for that patient based on the information available, says Jenny Persson.
When Gunnar was operated on, the cancer had not spread, and he chose surgery even though it can cause potency problems and urinary leakage.
– I was prepared, takes the potency so it can do it, the important thing is to live, he says.