Omomyc, a therapeutic protein developed at the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) and its spin-off Peptomyc, has shown for the first time that it is capable of stopping metastatic breast cancer. It has long been known that the MYC gene plays an important role in the development of many types of tumors. Instead, there is some controversy about how it can affect the development of metastases, and some studies even suggest that inhibiting MYC could enhance metastasis.
Now, this new work sheds light on this issue for the first time. Specifically, the efficacy of Omomyc, this MYC-inhibiting protein, has been analyzed to control the progression of metastatic breast cancer, and the results obtained have been “very positive”. In the research, published in the journal Cancer Research Communicationsdifferent experiments have been carried out both ‘in vitro’ and ‘in vivo’ to find out how Omomyc impacted breast cancer metastases.
“The response has been very positive and in all cases it has been found that Omomyc has significant antimetastatic activity, contrary to what had been speculated,” explained Dr. Daniel Massó, Peptomyc researcher and first author of the article. “We have seen that it is also an effective drug by blocking the invasion, establishment and growth of metastases in breast cancer,” adds Dr. Laura Soucek, who participated in this research. Although the trials have not yet been carried out with patients, the work done by VHIO leads the researchers to think that they could improve survival with this drug in patients with overexposure of the genes that Omomyc blocks.
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