Cholesterol ‘traffic jam’ stops cancer growth in mice

Hello Nature readers,
This week, we learn that GLP-1 drugs could stall cancer, hear that a cholesterol ‘traffic jam’ stops cancer growth in mice and watch macrophages engulf melanoma cells.

Cholesterol traffic jam stops cancer growth

Scientists have found a potential new way to tackle aggressive cancers by altering how tumour cells process cholesterol in mice. The team created a ‘cholesterol traffic jam’ in cancer cells with a mutation in the tumour-suppressing gene TP53 by disrupting the enzymes that move the lipid around a cell — phosphatidylinositol-5-phosphate 4-kinases (PI5P4Ks). “When you delete these kinases, the animals are 100 percent protected and never develop a tumour,” says cancer biologist and study co-author Brooke Emerling. Targeting PI5P4Ks could be a new treatment strategy for tumours that often have TP53 mutations, such as breast cancers.

GLP-1 drugs could stall cancer

Obesity and type 2 diabetes treatments called GLP-1 receptor agonists — sold under names such as Ozempic and Wegovy — might prevent the spread of some cancers. Researchers looked at data from over 10,000 patients with solid tumours and found that people who started taking GLP-1s had a lower risk of their cancer progressing than those taking other types of diabetes medication. “GLP-1 receptor agonists have never been just glucose-lowering drugs,” says cancer researcher Marcin Chwistek. “What’s new here is the consistency across tumour types, and data this large and this consistent warrant a prospective randomized trial.” The results are due to be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting this week.

Cancer vaccine doubles survival rate

Researchers have used a personalized vaccine to boost the immune system’s response to brain cancer, which helped one person remain cancer free for nearly five years. Glioblastoma — the most aggressive form of brain cancer — is very good at evading the immune system, making it tricky to target with immunotherapy. The vaccine activates the immune system using engineered DNA molecules customized to recognize and attack up to 40 proteins on a person’s own cancer cells. In an early clinical trial, two-third of patients showed no sign of progression after six months and the same proportion survived at least one year.

Cervical cancer is ‘a human rights issue’

“Cervical cancer elimination is evidence-based and attainable,” writes cancer researcher Karen Canfell. “Therefore, achieving elimination is more than a health issue — it is a human rights issue.” The efficacy of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines makes the ongoing costs to women, families and society of the human papillomavirus (HPV) a completely avoidable tragedy, Canfell argues. Recent US funding cuts to global aid and an uptick in vaccine hesitancy threaten to hinder HPV-related cancer elimination efforts. But there is real momentum behind these efforts, which, if sustained, will benefit women and society as a whole, Canfell writes.

ADCs on the highway to new payloads

Most approved antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) — treatments that use antibodies to deliver a toxic drug directly to cancer cells, sparing healthy tissue — rely on only two types of toxins, which stop DNA repair or block cell division. But tumours are increasingly developing resistance to these drugs. Researchers are exploring other options, such as reviving old cancer drugs, combining multiple drugs into one payload and experimenting with new immunotherapies and radioligands.

Early detection: roll out can’t precede trials

Earlier this year, the US government passed new legislation that allowed multi-cancer early detection (MCED) tests to be covered by the health insurance program Medicare, despite there being no such tests approved for use in the United States. MCEDs detect signals from a range of cancers in asymptomatic individuals using a single biological sample (usually blood), aiming to help early detection, but so far, there is little evidence that they reduce cancer-related mortality, write medical researchers Ariadna Tibau and Aaron Kesselheim. They argue that randomized trials showing clear benefits of these tests should be undertaken before they can be rolled out to the public.