Cancer affects millions of individuals and their loved ones each year. Both hematologic or blood cancers, and solid tumors can have fatal outcomes. Fortunately, the advancement of medicine and technology has helped generate robust and effective therapies against many different types of cancers. While many primary sites of cancer have been well controlled through cancer therapies, cancer recurrence is still a pressing issue for physicians to treat. Additionally, when cancers recur, the disease is in a different tissue. The growth of tumor in areas of the body different from the primary cancer location is known as metastasis.
Metastatic burden is a major obstacle to effective and curative treatment. Unfortunately, once tumors have progressed to a later stage, metastasis is almost always present. In many cases, metastasis is the driving factor that predicts therapeutic outcome and patient survival. Currently, physicians and scientists are working to understand how metastases develop and better improve patient care.
Many scientists have worked to understand how to prevent cancer. One of the obvious ways to reduce cancer risk is by living a healthy, well-balanced lifes. However, in the last decade aspirin was found to help reduce risk for cancer. While low doses of daily aspirin can have deleterious side effects, scientists are still working on understanding the role aspirin has in cancer prevention and control.
A recent article in Nature, by Dr. Rahul Roychoudhuri and others, demonstrated that aspirin can prevent metastasis in cancer. Roychoudhuri is Professor of Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy at the University of Cambridge, Department of Pathology. He is also the Director of the CRUK Cambridge Center Training Program and Director of Studies in Pathology at St. Catherine’s College. His work focuses on the immune response to cancer and how to better develop therapies. More specifically, Roychoudhuri works to understand the interaction of immune cells known as T cells and their ability to recognize and target cancer. He is internationally known for his work and has uncovered molecular mechanisms that are necessary for anti-tumor immune response.
Roychoudhuri and his team screened over 800 genes in mice and found only 15 were associated with cancer metastasis. Specifically, they discovered that mice lacking a gene, that has the information to create a protein known as ARHGEF1, had less metastatic burden. After further investigation, researchers found that ARHGEF1 protein suppresses T cells that normally recognize and target metastatic cancer cells. Scientists revealed that ARHGEF1 is switched on in T cells after being exposed to a clotting factor known as thromboxane A2 (TXA2). Interestingly, TXA2 is produced by platelets and helps in the process of wound-healing. Aspirin works to reduce TXA2 and thin the blood. Therefore, aspirin reduces TXA2 in T cells and enhances their ability to function and target cancer cells. Researchers found that reducing TXA2, turns ARHGEF1 “off” and allows the T cells to properly function.
This foundational work provides the mechanism by which aspirin prevents the establishment of cancer. Additionally, this discovery supports current clinical trials investigating how aspirin prevents the susceptibility to specific cancers. Overall, this work further advances our understanding of aspirin and how it can enhance therapeutic efficacy and improve patient outcomes.
Article, Nature, Rahul Roychoudhuri, University of Cambridge, CRUK Cambridge Center, St. Catherine’s College
