Potential 'brake' cancer therapy

Adding an anti-inflammatory drug to immunotherapy and standard chemotherapy may provide long-term inhibition of aggressive bladder tumor growth, according to a proof-of-concept study led by Cedars-Sinai cancer researchers

The researchers' previous work, led by Cedars-Sinai scientist Keith Syson Chan, Ph.

Based on these findings, the researchers identified a mechanism that may drive the immunosuppressive effect of chemotherapy and determined how to counteract it, thereby activating a more durable immune response

"These results are significant because this novel combination of anti-inflammatory drugs (eg, celecoxib), chemotherapy, and immunotherapy may increase chemo-immunotherapy response in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer

Muscle-invasive bladder cancer is aggressive and more likely to spread to other parts of the body, according to the Urology Care Foundation

past and present treatments

Since the 1940s, the main treatments to kill cancer cells have included chemotherapy drugs that kill cancer cells directly

In recent years, immunotherapy drugs have been added to cancer treatment regimens to help a patient's own immune cells attack the cancer, but response rates have been low

solve the mystery

Researchers may have discovered why the combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy often fails

To counteract this effect, the researchers added the drug celecoxib to the chemoimmunotherapy

"Not only did the addition of celecoxib work well for chemotherapy, it also sensitized bladder tumors to chemo-immunotherapy, providing a durable response," Hayashi said

Next, the researchers plan to test the new therapy's efficacy in randomized, placebo-controlled human trials in collaboration with clinical colleagues at Cedars-Sinai Cancer and Mount Sinai Cancer.

"Using a patient's immune system to attack tumor cells has become an important tool for doctors to treat cancer," said Dan Theodorescu, MD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center and co-author of the study