Hannah’s Willberry Wonder Pony Charity and The Bone Cancer Research Trust have joined forces to award Dr Jun Ishihara from Imperial College London a research grant aimed at exploring a new immunotherapy approach to osteosarcoma.
A protein named interleukin-12 (IL-12) is known to successfully activate anti-tumour immune cells against several cancers. However, despite showing strong anti-tumour activity, IL-12 induces severe toxicity to other tissues.
Dr Ishihara has successfully been able to reduce IL-12's toxicity by incorporating an additional fragment (tumour-targeted domain - TDD) to the IL-12 protein that enables it to be delivered selectively to the tumour, thereby reducing its effect on healthy tissue.
TTD-IL-12 is effective in laboratory models for other cancer types and initial osteosarcoma laboratory models. This project aims to extend the results found in other cancers to a full range of laboratory models of osteosarcoma.
The research also aims to determine if a combination of TDD-IL-12 with doxorubicin (part of the current MAP chemotherapy regime) can offer additional benefit.
Dr Zoe Davison, Head of Research, Support and Information at the Bone Cancer Research Trust, shared:
"Immunotherapy is emerging as an effective treatment in many cancers and works by helping the immune system find and attack cancer cells. With treatment options for osteosarcoma patients remaining unchanged for decades it's vital that we investigate options such as immunotherapy for our patients and try to translate the progress being made in other cancers to osteosarcoma. We're delighted to be able to do this in collaboration with Hannah's Willberry Wonder Pony Charity who wholeheartedly have the same aim as us, to offer osteosarcoma patients kinder and more effective treatments."
Rachel and James Francis, parents of Hannah and trustees of her charity, added:
"When Hannah was ill, we investigated all the potential treatment options available, although these were few and far between. One area of rapid development for other cancers was in immunotherapy, but no such options existed for osteosarcoma. So we are hugely excited about jointly funding this new grant which will explicitly investigate this exciting area of science. We're equally pleased to be working with the Bone Cancer Research Trust as we both share the same vision and a determination to provide brighter prospects for those diagnosed with this dreadful disease in the future".
To find out more about this project, please click here