A collaborative study by researchers from Rice and Vanderbilt Universities reveals that combining a small-molecule protein therapy with focused ultrasound can significantly reduce prostate cancer tumors, marking a groundbreaking step in non-invasive cancer treatment.
A new study published in the journal Advanced Science has unveiled a promising new method for treating prostate cancer. By combining focused ultrasound (FUS) with a small-molecule protein therapy known as tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), a research team from Rice University and Vanderbilt University has discovered a way to significantly reduce the size and burden of prostate cancer tumors.
The study, led by Michael King, the E.D. Butcher Professor of Bioengineering at Rice, and Charles Caskey, an associate professor in radiology and radiological sciences at Vanderbilt, is the first to demonstrate that low-intensity mechanical force, in combination with TRAIL, can effectively treat cancers.
Urgent Need for Better Treatments
“There is urgent need to improve how we treat advanced and recurrent prostate cancer, which is the second-leading cause of death among men in the United States and is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in more than 100 countries,” King, a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scholar, said in a news release.
King emphasized the significance of their discovery, adding: “We have now found a safe, effective, and noninvasive way to enhance the antitumor effects of a specific cancer drug (TRAIL), a promising finding which we are hopeful can soon be translated for clinical care.”
Challenges With Current Treatments
Current treatments for prostate cancer often bring severe side effects, and despite promising results in laboratory settings, the clinical application of TRAIL has faced challenges.
TRAIL has a very short half-life, requiring multiple daily administrations, which increases the risk of side effects.
Combining Mechanical Forces With Therapy
In previous studies, the team found that certain mechanical forces like fluid shear stress (FSS) could amplify the anticancer effects of TRAIL, though these forces are not present in solid tumors.
This led to the hypothesis that low-intensity FUS might achieve similar results.
Successful Preclinical Trials
Abigail Fabiano, a doctoral student in the King lab, and Malachy Newman, a biomedical engineering graduate student at Vanderbilt, conducted several experiments using prostate cancer cell lines to ensure no harm came to nearby healthy cells from mechanical forces.
They discovered that combining FUS with TRAIL was significantly more effective than using either treatment independently. This synergistic action opens new possibilities for treating cancers.
“This foundational study provides crucial preclinical insights that can be used to develop a novel combination therapy for prostate cancer,” King added. “Furthermore, it opens the doors to many new avenues for using mechanotherapy in medicine and has far-reaching implications in how FUS and other mechanical therapies can be combined with small-molecule protein therapy and other drugs to effectively treat various types of cancers with fewer adverse effects in the future.”
Looking Forward
The promising preclinical results could pave the way for new, non-invasive cancer treatments with minimal side effects, offering hope for millions of patients worldwide.